by Paul Fischer

What a year for John Cusack: In two of the year's big Hollywood releases, he got to romance Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity and dump Catherine Zeta-Jones in America's Sweethearts. But if it was up this most reluctant of stars, he'd be off doing what he enjoys the most: Starring in one of those quirky films he does so well, the point being, of course, that Cusack is uncomfortable talking about the commercialism of his work. Cusack's career has been defined by an off-centeredness to his work, playing characters on the fringe of mainstream America, from his earliest work in Say Anything, through to the likes of Being John Malkovich, Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity [the latter two co-written by the actor]. So it seems at odds with Cusack's previous work that he ends up starring not in one, but two, very mainstream Hollywood films. Contemplating the dilemma in which he finds himself, Cusack's honest defense is that "doing these bigger movies merely help you to do movies that are more sort of, off center", he quietly explains.

Born into an Irish Catholic family in the Chicago suburb of Evanston in 1966, Cusack's father, Dick, was an actor and documentary maker and his mother, Nancy, a teacher. His sisters, Joan and Susie are actors and Joan - or ''Joanie'' as he calls her - has appeared in a few of brother John's films, including High Fidelity. Cusack describes his childhood as being "unconventional and freethinking," which may explain why he turned to acting via Chicago's Piven Theater Workshop, run by the parents of one of his friends, Jeremy, who has appeared in many of Cusack's movies, Serendipity amongst them. Bit parts in commercials lead to bigger and bigger film roles in the likes of Rob Reiner's The Sure Thing, and John Sayles' Eight Men Out until Cusack hit the 1990s big with Steven Frears' The Grifters. Cusack became passionate about lending a unique voice to film, and thus founded his own production company New Crime Productions, which produced Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity. "I just wanted to make my own movies, and that was the perfect way to go about doing that."

Over a decade on, in searching for the perfect role, Cusack says "it's easier to find a good character, because you tend to make so mistakes that it becomes a process of elimination, and you end up mistrusting what interests you." Referring to, he adds, "particular moments in a script, a scene or a point of view. After you've done this for a while, you are less likely to be swayed by someone else's opinion. If your gut tells you, it's better to do it this way, you just listen to yourself."

This is what he did before tackling Serendipity, another conventional Hollywood romance, but one that appealed to Cusack. "It had a fairy tale quality about it that I loved." Cusack and co-star Kate Beckinsale meet by chance in a New York department store, spend a magical evening together in a sea of idyllic anonymity then inadvertently part. She believes in Fate. If they are destined to be together then so be it. A few years later, even as their lives have changed, that once upon a time almost date comes back to haunt them and maybe Fate will bring them together.