It appears this is the week where Hollywood actors have decided to let off a bit of steam. First it was Miles Teller dissing (but not really) the cash cow "Divergent," and now it’s John Cusack taking a dig at the industry and its attitudes towards young actors, older actors and women in general.
“It’s a whorehouse and people go mad,” the "Maps To The Star" actor told The Guardian, talking about the industry, and he observes that it’s not a great place to be right now, no matter your age or gender.
“I got another 15, 20 years before they say I’m old. For women it’s brutal. [Screenwriter] Bruce [Wagner]’s thing about if you’re 26, you’re menopausal? It’s only absurd because it’s a little bit further than the truth,” Cusack says. “I have actress friends who are being put out to pasture at 29. They just want to open up another can of hot 22. It’s becoming almost like kiddie porn. It’s fucking weird.”
"People would look after you when I was a kid,” Cusack adds. “There were good people in the business. When I came to LA Rob Reiner said: ‘Come stay at my house.’ He taught me. I worked with Pacino [in 1996 crime drama ‘City Hall‘]. Pacino would talk to you and mentor you. Now it’s different. The culture just eats young actors up and spits them out. It’s a hard thing to survive without finding safe harbour.”
And that’s not all. Cusack laments that more than ever, it’s difficult to get a personal project off the ground in the studio system. “Now it’s six for them – with a committee cutting the film who weren’t part of making it – and maybe one for you. If I could do something like sell watches in China, then I would do that and just make movies like ‘Maps, ‘ ” he says.
This is an interesting take from an actor who has been in the game for a decades. Whether or not change can come to an industry that is still very, very old fashioned and stuck its traditional ways of doing things, remains to be seen, but it’s nice to see someone calling it out for what is…hopefully someone is listening.