When "Grosse Pointe Blank" opens in theaters this Friday, nice-guy actor John Cusack will help instill the name of the affluent Detroit suburb into the collective consciousness of the national movie-going public - just don't expect him to know anything about Grosse Pointe.
"I've driven through Grosse Pointe quickly once," confessed Cusack.
Though he's never actually spent quality time there, Cusack's film takes place in Grosse Pointe, the city widely believed to be the Beverly Hills of the Midwest, and has cast Hollywood's spotlight of curiosity and scrutiny on the highbrow hamlet.
From what he's heard and seen, Cusack likens the widespread wealth and posh atmosphere of Grosse Pointe to his own hometown of Evanston, Illinois.
"(Evanston) is similar but less upscale. And we have poor people in Evanston," Cusack said.
Even when admitting ignorance about the setting of his film or poking fun at its social status, John Cusack retains an air of niceness that has permeated every performance he's ever given.
Cusack gave losers a nice name in "Sixteen Candles." Cusack scored a big victory for nice guys in "Say Anything." Cusack even put a nice face on con artistry in "The Grifters."
Cusack is now hoping to bring his nice, Midas touch to the role of Martin Q. Blank, a sweet, complicated hit man reluctantly going home to Grosse Pointe, MI for his 10-year high school reunion.
Stopping off in Dearborn during an exhaustive press junket for "Blank," surely Cusack couldn't be a nice guy all of the time. Surely, he must possess a superstar ego. Surely, he must carry a grudge against journalists roughly the size of, well, Grosse Pointe.
Disappointingly pleasant looking, in a black suit with a skinny black tie, like he just stepped out of "The Grifters," Cusack, chatting in his suite at the Ritz-Carlton, is almost apologetic for having so little first-hand experience with Grosse Pointe.
"I would have given an arm to be able to shoot the film in Grosse Pointe. But it was all number-crunching. The production only had so much to spend, about $15 million, so we spent it on the movie instead of the locations."
Stopping just short of peace offerings, Cusack, who did triple-time as actor, co-producer and co-screenwriter, acknowledges that the footage of the real Grosse Pointe was shot by the second unit alone. Posh California suburbs like Monrovia and Duarte often doubled for Pointe's atmosphere of "old money."
In conveying the genre-crossing black comedy among the inherited wealth, Cusack, both as actor and producer, was admittedly attracted to the absurd subject matter of "Blank"'s dark humor from the start.
"With black comedy, you can keep extending it forever," Cusack said. "Ultimately, you just try to take serious themes which there aren't easy answers for and just sort of tell the truth and run in a satiric way."
And run he did, as "Blank" is a startlingly original and satirical amalgam of romantic, comic and action clichés, blended together in an ultra-violent manner. So violent, in fact, that the film has brewed up controversy for its repeated scenes of graphic hits and comical carnage.
"I don't think it glorifies violence. I don't think we were politically correct either. The film satirizes the (action) genre and we needed to be excessive for it to reach levels of absurdity," added Cusack, still nicely. "By the end of the film, it goes so far into absurdity that we have someone proposing during a massacre. So, I don't know how we could be glorifying violence, since we were making so damn much fun of it."
Fun, for Cusack, seems to be the appropriate word to describe his close-knit production of "Grosse Pointe Blank:" He recruited two of his oldest friends, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink, to collaborate on the screenplay and gave his sister Joan - who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987's "Working Girl" - a plum, showy supporting role.
Adhering to his agreeable reputation, Cusack's experience as a first-time producer in this familial climate only enhanced his overall pleasure.
"I liked (producing). It was a lot of fun," Cusack said. "You get to dictate the way you like to work and hire the people you want to work with. Otherwise, you get directors and crew members who yell and scream all day. When you're producer, you can tell them to go scream on another set. Seriously, this environment made me feel really good and people kind of shrug it off, but you always do better work when you feel good."
Feeling good has apparently paid off for this film, seeing that Cusack was not only able to oversee the general well being of the production but also able to tailor the character of Martin to his needs, consulting with "a guy who knew way too much about paramilitary activity" and injecting some autobiographical elements into the confused professional killer.
"Yeah, sure, Martin is me a bit. Nothing literally autobiographical. I've never killed anyone. My 10-year reunion was hell. I wear black. That's about it."
Does Cusack, the multi-faceted actor who still felt out of place at his reunion at the Hilton of greater Skokie, then feel that his effort in "Grosse Pointe Blank" turned out better than some of his past endeavors?
"I don't know, I like some of them but I don't like some of them," Cusack demurred cryptically. "I just tried to make something here I liked and was proud of. It's funny. It's got some pretty good dialogue. It's pretty absurd."
Adding modesty to his seemingly endless list of virtues, Cusack underplays the fact that "Grosse Pointe Blank," while quirky, absurd and independent-feeling, is poised to relaunch him into the superstar stratosphere of Hollywood, unwittingly taking one southeast Michigan community along for the ride.
"We all thought this one could fly into the radar and bring Grosse Pointe the recognition it warrants, because it's got all the trappings of a commercial movie. You can market it like a Bruce Willis movie if you wanted to. Underneath that, it's more subversive. We like to call it 'sub-mercial' - half commercial, half subversive."
If the movie was completely commercial, Cusack joked, it would probably bear a studio-anointed, mass-produced title like "Dangerous Charm."
"I wish more than anything I had some great story that Disney tried to homogenize our little film. But, by their standards, it didn't cost much money. They had bigger fish to fry."
So, then, does John Cusack.
Now that he's becoming an action hero with June's "ConAir" ("Everything there ever was blows up.") and Hollywood player with two screenplays in development, will Cusack ever return to playing the nice losers in "The Sure Thing," "Sixteen Candles" and "Better Off Dead" that made him who he is today?
"Well, this guy's kind of a loser. Should I be playing teenagers with low IQ's? I can't really go back to playing teenagers - the headgear hurt too much. Though I could play some really dense adults."
Whatever his future holds, there is always the possibility for Cusack of reprising the role of Martin in a "Blank" sequel.
"If it opens well. He'd be like a post-modern Clueseau. 'The Further Adventures of Martin Q. Blank.' We're ready if you are."
We're always ready, John, for you to prove that there definitely can be more Mr. Nice Guy - even if you never again come within point-blank range of Grosse Pointe.
BRYAN LARK/Daily
John Cusack recently finished filming "Grosse Pointe Blank," which he co-produced, co-wrote, and acted in.