John Cusack Reveals the 1 Condition He Had Before Starring in Say Anything

John Cusack had a few hesitations before starring in the 1989 film Say Anything. 

While reflecting on his involvement in the iconic romantic comedy during a Nov. 30 screening of the film at New York City’s Kings Theatre, the 59-year-old actor revealed that he only agreed to play protagonist Lloyd Dobler if director Cameron Crowe agreed to let him make a few changes. 

After reading the script, the Serendipity star immediately noticed that a lot of movies would portray young people through the lens of a “45 to 50-year-old professional writer in the mouth of all these people.”

Since he strongly believed that “people don’t talk like that,” Cusack recalled telling Crowe, 68, that he would only take on the role “if I can rewrite the part with you.” And while he expected Crowe and the rest of the creative team to immediately shut him down, they simply answered with, “Yes, okay.”

As for what he wanted to change about Lloyd’s character? Cusack explained that “the character was more optimistic, but didn’t have any darker sides to it.” So, he wanted to make it clear that Lloyd was “choosing to be optimistic,” noting that it made him “sort of heroic.”

“It’s like a [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney song,” he continued. “Paul McCartney writes, ‘You gotta admit it’s getting better. It’s getting better all the time.’ And then John Lennon says, ‘It can’t get no worse.’ So that was the thing with that character.”

Cusack went on to explain that music played a huge role in the film, which also starred Ione Skye. In fact, the soundtrack was one of the things that he and Crowe immediately bonded over. 

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“Cameron’s language and my language was, we would just sort of bond over different music and songs,” he recalled. “I would always pick out music for a scene, and then I would try to keep the vibe with that scene put into the film.”

While Cusack continues to rely on music to help him step into various characters, he also made it clear that he wasn’t too keen on revisiting any of the characters he’s played in the past.

“I was lucky that I never had the desire, or no one asked me to do any sequels,” he quipped. “There’s one that I think would be interesting to do, which would be 1408. Just because … I think today, you know, most movies suck.”