John Cusack is one of the few actors today that appeal to both males and females.
I bet if you asked a girl to list her favorite actors, somewhere after Brad Pitt, Matthew McConaughey and Orlando Bloom, you'd find John Cusack.
Meanwhile, if you asked guys to list their favorites, John Cusack would be on the same list with Jet Li, Adam Sandler and Marlon Brando.
What is it about John that makes both sexes pay attention? I can't answer that for girls, but I will attempt to answer it for the guys.
In almost every role he plays, John Cusack is just a normal guy doing normal things.
Sure, he'll play something just a little out of the normal realm - like a hitman in Grosse Pointe Blank - but even then, he makes it seem like a perfectly normal career.
Let me tell you a story about John Cusack. A few years back, my wife worked at the Salt Lake International Airport. During that time, they were filming parts of Con Air in and around Salt Lake. A few of the actors from the film - Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames to name two - came through my wife's gift shop.
One day my friend, Trav the Movie Man, and his wife were in the airport getting ready to fly out and they thought they would stop off and talk to my wife. While they were in there, who should walk into the shop but John Cusack.
And then something remarkable happened. The song "In Your Eyes" started playing over the store music system.
The girls went ga-ga, as did Trav.
To this day, Trav can't tell me this story without getting a tear in his eye.
John is in a lot of movies, but my Top Twelve are these:
(In Order of Release)
- Sixteen Candles
- Better Off Dead
- Journey of Natty Gann
- Stand by Me
- Say Anything
- Grosse Pointe Blank
- Con Air
- Being John Malkovich
- High Fidelity
- Serendipity
- Identity
- Runaway Jury
