John Cusack was brutally honest during his recent interview with The Guardian when it came to the topic of Hollywood’s dark side and his new movie, Maps to the Stars .
When thinking of Hollywood, for many, the first thing that comes to mind is the glamorous life. The lights, the cameras, the fame, but John Cusack reminded readers that it’s not all about the glitz and the glam. According to Us Weekly , Cusack is currently acting in the upcoming movie Maps to the Stars , which is a story that looks at the obsession with celebrity and stars’ falls from grace.
The Guardian went on to explain that, in the movie, Cusack plays Stafford Weiss , a therapist who got rich off a “cocktail therapy (one part Freudian psychoanalysis, one part deep-tissue massage, a generous measure of bullshit) that’s guzzled by the showbiz elite. They want a quick fix for their deep insecurities.”
During the interview, Cusack made remarks that Hollywood isn’t the same place it was when he first started out, claiming that the current culture “eats young actors up and spits them out.”
“People would look after you when I was a kid. There were good people in the business. When I came to L.A. Rob Reiner said: ‘Come stay at my house.’ He taught me. I worked with Pacino. 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 harbor.”
John Cusack also went so far as to call Hollywood a “wh**ehouse” that is “becoming almost like kiddie porn.” This comment related to the industry’s obsession with youth. Cusack went on to say that this obsession is “brutal” for women in the industry. Screenwriter Bruce Wagner made a comment on the value of youth according to Us Weekly , teasing that “a 26-year-old actress is called ‘menopausal’ by her younger costars.”
“For women it’s brutal,” Cusack continued on aging in Hollywood. “Bruce’s thing about if you’re 26, you’re menopausal? It’s only absurd because it’s a little bit further than the truth. 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 f**king weird.”
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