John Cusack interview

As an actor who has made his name as a champion of independent movies, often playing the anti-hero or the unconventional outsider, John Cusack’s name at the top of the credits for Roland Emmerich’s eagerly anticipated blockbuster 2012 might raise a few eyebrows.

A special effects laden movie is new territory for a man who has carved out a uniquely individual career with whip smart comedies like High Fidelity, Grosse Point Blank and The Ice Harvest or the gloriously surreal Being John Malkovich.

Glance at his CV and there are thought provoking dramas like Max (where Cusack played an art dealer who befriends a young Adolf Hitler), the gritty noir thriller The Grifters and Terence Malick’s war opus The Thin Red Line, amongst many more.

But Cusack applied the same critical criteria to the script for 2012 as he does for all the rest that drop on to his doormat at home in California. Quite simply, he asks himself, is it any good?

"And it was," he says. "Really good. In a way, it sort of chose me. I was just at home doing my thing and I get a call saying 'Roland wants you to do this movie.'

"I met him and I read the script and it was actually very well written and surprising in lots of ways. It wasn’t like a genre disaster movie, it was very different to what I expected and so it was a kind of easy choice for me. “

And the thing is, Cusack is never predictable. 2012 represents new territory and that’s exactly what he’s always looking for. “That’s part of the fun, to try new things. At least that’s how I look at it. And this was something new for me.”

2012 does indeed feature extraordinary effects. But it’s also a story about basic human emotions – love, redemption, the desire to survive and protect your family. And the characters are extremely well drawn, says the actor.

Cusack plays Jackson Curtis, a writer who has become obsessed with his work to the extent where it’s cost him his marriage and separation from his two children.

"His wife has left him because he’s too focused on his writing," says Cusack. "They have two kids together, but she’s now with a doctor, and so you really get sucked into the family drama.

"Actually the script was all about these very simple, family things and Roland was very focused on telling that story with all of this other, amazing stuff happening as well.

"When everything starts to happen and the world is facing the ultimate disaster, his own over-riding instinct to get to his family and try, somehow, to save them. That’s a powerful emotion – it’s a family literally trying to stay alive as these cataclysmic events are happening all around them."

Emmerich’s ability to both focus on the story at the same time as planning and executing huge special effects greatly impressed his star.

"Roland casts actors that he likes and what was remarkable about the script was that there are all these very human stories. Like page after page these things would happen and it would then say ‘and Rome fell...’

"And you would think 'I have no idea how he would even approach shooting that.’ As a filmmaker, I just go, ‘well how do you shoot that?  Where do put the camera, how does one do that?'

"There were things that I’ve never seen even attempted on film – the scale of it was incredible. And I did think 'well, will you have time for the acting?' And he most certainly did. A lot of attention was paid to that all the way through the shoot.”

Cusack faced plenty of physical challenges during the shoot – including working in the water tank on the studio lot at Vancouver, where some of the flooding sequences were created, and many scenes where he would be "running and jumping" as his character tries to get to safety as the planet suffers seismic underground shifts that lead to terrible destruction.

"It was really kind of a nice shoot and they were such great professionals and so amazing to work with. And so it was really nice for me. But doing all the underwater stuff was pretty intense, and then some of the other physical stuff was too.

"There were a couple of times when they have you on a conveyor belt – one of those runner things - when your character is running away from some impending disaster and that was very physical.

"And you’ve done it a couple of times and then you’d have to say 'you understand that we can do this like, four, five, six times more and that’s fine. But if we have to do this 15 more times I’m going to pull a hamstring and I won’t be able to walk tomorrow. So you do understand that will be your choice?'" he laughs.

"So when you do an action movie, you have to let everyone know what’s about to happen.  Say, if it’s 'jump over that fence and tumble' – OK, I’ll do it like ten times. 

"But if I do it thirty times that might be too much – so you have to negotiate! That’s the same on any action film because they want to get so much coverage – but there’s only so much my hamstrings can take!"

Emmerich and his co-writer Harald Kloser wanted to tell a contemporary version of Noah’s Ark – the myth of the epic flood that will sweep away civilisation. And then they discovered the perfect hook on which to hang their story of impending disaster – the Mayan Prophecies.

The Mayan calendar is set to reach the end of its 13th cycle on December 21, 2012 and after that, there’s nothing. For the filmmakers – and a multitude of conspiracy theorists – it begs the question, 'what happens after that?' Do the Mayan Prophecies predict the end of the world?

"No, I don’t think the world will end. I think maybe it will just be a change in consciousness in 2012.  I think there will be a big shift in consciousness. Either that or it really will be the end," Cusack laughs. "I obviously hope it’s not."

There’s a worldwide fascination for prophecies that foretell doom and disaster and Cusack admits that, as a child growing up in Illinois he was transfixed by stories of apocalyptic nightmares.

"I think a lot of people are already kind of obsessed with the Mayan Prophecies. There’s a real fascination for that kind of thing,” he says. “I know when I first read about Nostradamus it hooked me.

"Who doesn’t want to read that - it’s endlessly fascinating, right?  It just trips you out.  It’s great. No matter if you want to believe it or you think it’s all crackpot stuff, I think it’s undeniably compelling. 

"Or if you even read prophecies, like The Book of Revelations, just the imagery and the poetry of it is so intense. And if you’re raised Catholic, you’re raised with that in your consciousness too."
 
* 2012 is released in South Africa on 4 December, 2009. Watch the trailer here.