{"id":2517344,"date":"2026-07-25T22:51:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2517344"},"modified":"2026-07-25T22:51:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:51:43","slug":"john-cusack-reveals-why-he-shifted-away-from-starring-in-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/john-cusack-reveals-why-he-shifted-away-from-starring-in-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cusack Reveals Why He Shifted Away from Starring in Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\" data-body-type=\"bodyblocks\">\n<h3 class=\"mb-4 text-lg font-bold\">NEED TO KNOW<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"mb-4\">\n<li class=\"ml-4 safari:ml-6 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">John Cusack discussed his upcoming debut graphic novel, <em>Momo<\/em>, while attending San Diego Comic-Con 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 safari:ml-6 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;There&#8217;s no bull, and there&#8217;s no committee,&#8221; he said of being an author as opposed to acting<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 safari:ml-6 list-disc\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>Momo<\/em> is scheduled for a Sept. 29 release<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:John Cusack;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/tag\/john-cusack\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">John Cusack<\/a> is elaborating on why he&#8217;s shifted from film to writing fiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Friday, July 24, the 60-year-old <em>Serendipity<\/em> star opened up about his new book <em>Momo<\/em> and the artistic freedom that the project has brought while speaking to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Variety;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Variety\/status\/2080721412663263270?s=20\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Variety<\/em><\/a> during the 2026 San Diego Comic-Con.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I always thought they were the closest things to film, really,&#8221; he said when asked what intrigued him about translating his ideas into a graphic novel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-0 size-full\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-3 right-3 rounded-full bg-primary p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-primary\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" class=\"flex-none size-4 -scale-x-100 text-primary lg:size-6 [&amp;_path]:fill-current\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M3.1 3.1V11h1.8V6.314l5.392 5.393 1.415-1.414L6.313 4.9H11V3.1zm17.8 17.8V13h-1.8v4.686l-5.393-5.393-1.415 1.414 5.393 5.393H13v1.8z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed bottom-0 left-0 right-0 top-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-primary hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<div style=\"max-height:none;overflow:visible\"><span class=\"[&amp;_p]:inline\"><\/p>\n<p><em>John Cusack, &#8216;Chi-Raq&#8217; press conference, Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin, Feb. 2016<\/em><br \/><em>Credit: Matthias Nareyek\/WireImage<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;You&#8217;re picking out shots, they&#8217;re so cinematic,&#8221; Cusack continued of the writing process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>Momo<\/em>, which was illustrated by Ignacio No\u00e9, is set to be published by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mad Cave Studios;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/madcavestudios.com\/series\/momo\/?srsltid=AfmBOoq-rta_Kdh3l-hbcjPv4qYazA2ZCCExZXbe1llVUGpbv7aB30mU\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Mad Cave Studios<\/a>. The novel is described as &#8220;a wild, genre-bending road trip with cosmic stakes&#8221; that follows two fugitives forming an unlikely alliance in 1972 as they set out to recover an ancient artifact for TV legend Jackie Gleason, mixing sci-fi with political satire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I thought, I wanna tell a story, but I didn&#8217;t wanna negotiate telling a story, really,&#8221; he said of the process. &#8220;And when you ask somebody to put $20 or $30 million into a bank account [for a film], they wanna have an opinion and they&#8217;re afraid and all that stuff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;This was just like, I wrote it, and I said, &#8216;I like the story,&#8217; and then I got this beautiful, wonderful artist, Ignacio No\u00e9, to do the illustrations and so nobody edited anything I wrote or that he drew. And so it&#8217;s really a piece of work that was just done by two people [who] did a great job putting it out.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Cusack said he and No\u00e9 being able to release the project on their terms is something that just &#8220;doesn&#8217;t happen today,&#8221; adding that the project was &#8220;an anti-algorithm thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;There&#8217;s no bull, and there&#8217;s no committee,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no computer up in Seattle that&#8217;s poll testing it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Later in his interview, the \u200b\u200b<em>High Fidelity<\/em> alum also shared that if fans loved <em>Momo<\/em> enough for a studio to have it greenlit for film production, he would love to star in the adaptation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Cusack is making his graphic novel debut with <em>Momo<\/em>, but the actor previously co-wrote a 2016 collection of essays titled <em>Things that Can and Cannot Be Said<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <em>2012<\/em> star also isn&#8217;t the only famous member of his family who has taken a step back from the spotlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img alt=\"John Cusack in 'Say Anything' - 1989Credit: Gracie\/Kobal\/Shutterstock\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/f749250c5ac93a1999357910e0063e4e50b0ffa15cd7281ca1d08db5c4602955\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w320_h480;quality_80;format_webp\/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fpeople_218%2F09ce810c91623443e85623ad185ce909\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<div style=\"max-height:none;overflow:visible\"><span class=\"[&amp;_p]:inline\"><\/p>\n<p><em>John Cusack in &#8216;Say Anything&#8217; &#8211; 1989<\/em><br \/><em>Credit: Gracie\/Kobal\/Shutterstock<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In May, his older sister <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Joan Cusack;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/john-cusack-recalls-working-with-sister-joan-cusack-on-say-anything-11869065\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Cusack<\/a> made her first appearance on a red carpet since September 2015 when she attended the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Toy Story 5;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/all-about-toy-story-5-11910904\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Toy Story 5<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>London premiere \u2014 ending an <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:11-year hiatus;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/joan-cusack-first-red-carpet-appearance-11-years-toy-story-5-premiere-11985867\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">11-year hiatus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Months earlier, John had an interesting take on the film industry when asked during a December screening of his 1989 movie <em>Say Anything<\/em> if he would ever do any sequels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PEOPLE's free daily newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I was lucky that I never had the desire, or no one asked me to do any sequels,&#8221; John said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;There&#8217;s one that I think would be interesting to do, which would be <em>1408<\/em>. Just because &#8230; I think today, you know, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:most movies suck;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/john-cusack-would-make-1408-sequel-11859919\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">most movies suck<\/a>,&#8221; he laughed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>Momo<\/em> is scheduled for a Sept. 29 release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:People;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/john-cusack-shares-why-he-shifted-away-from-film-for-latest-project-12026923\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">People<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW John Cusack discussed his upcoming debut graphic novel, Momo, while attending San Diego Comic-Con 2026 &#8220;There&#8217;s no bull, and there&#8217;s no committee,&#8221; he said of being an author as opposed to acting Momo is scheduled for a Sept. 29 release John Cusack is elaborating on why he&#8217;s shifted from film to writing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2517345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[361371,496994,383460,321422,387069,361021],"class_list":["post-2517344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-graphic-novel","tag-ignacio-noe","tag-joan-cusack","tag-john-cusack","tag-momo","tag-san-diego-comic-con"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/John-Cusack-Reveals-Why-He-Shifted-Away-from-Starring-in.com2Fen2Fpeople_2182F4017968a4d3db1b630278527b958a78d.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2517344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2517346,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517344\/revisions\/2517346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2517345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2517344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2517344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2517344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}