Cusack goes crazy for The Raven

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This article was published 26/04/2012 (5000 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES — The 6-foot-3 John Cusack politely nods to a few celebrity gawkers as he lumbers through the lobby of the trendy SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.

He’s just that kind of guy. Decked out in black from head to toe, Cusack, 45, may look imposing, but his personality is more passive than domineering.

In his latest movie, The Raven, opening Friday, Cusack plays the 19th-century writer, Edgar Allan Poe. The quasi-biopic, directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), follows Poe near the end of his miserable life in Baltimore, where he’s embroiled with a serial killer who is re-enacting some of the horrific deaths in Poe’s stories.

Ben Livingston’s and Hannah Shakespeare’s screenplay references some of Poe’s famous works, including: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Premature Burial, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and the poem, Annabel Lee.

While The Raven might be the title of Poe’s celebrated 1845 epic poem, the movie veers into slasher territory in its depictions of the murders, which are graphic and bloody.

“Poe is, after all, the godfather of goth,” says Cusack. “I think he would have looked at (the torture film franchise) Saw and said, ‘That’s mine.'”

Still, key to The Raven’s effectiveness is Cusack’s portrayal of Poe, who died a poverty-stricken alcoholic in 1849 under mysterious circumstances (as alluded to in the movie).

By immersing himself in the role, Cusack found himself digging deep into a dark side he never thought he had.

“I think any actor would want to play Poe,” says Cusack of his complex subject. “He was an orphan of the world, and a pioneer into the underworld.”

Helping him find the method to the Poe madness were a few other factors. For instance, The Raven was filmed in Budapest, Hungary and Belgrade, Serbia, which passed for a gothic 19th-century Baltimore. The production also required a lot of night shoots.

“At times, I felt like I became a vampire. It was like I was on this cool bender,” says Cusack.

For Poe’s more obvious personality idiosyncrasies, Cusack relied on the writer’s observations of the modern world, “because he was ahead of his time” in many ways.

“He was very theatrical and at war with the world. He was more aware of his image than most, and his impact on people, and he definitely courted fame.”

Cusack says he enjoyed playing someone so different from himself — which isn’t to say he rejects the Hollywood movie roles when they are offered. He was front and centre in Roland Emmerich’s 2009 sci-fi flick, 2012, and says he “had fun” being a part of the ensemble comedy, Hot Tub Time Machine, in 2010.

He adds that he didn’t agree to The Raven in order to boost his career, but because of Poe’s obsessive personality — and the extra effort required to play him turned out to be irresistible.

“I felt like I had to go all in to play Poe, because it was the only way to do it.”

 

— Postmedia News