John Cusack discusses his new movie, Maps to the Stars

John Cusack in, Maps to the Stars

Maps to the Stars is the latest offering from Canadian director David Cronenberg, and probably his most commercial film to date.  The film takes a good hard look at fame and celebrity in Hollywood and makes one think, is everyone really that self centered and pretentious. Maps to the Stars centers around the Weiss family, an archetypical Hollywood dynasty - Dr Stafford Weiss (John Cusack) is a psychotherapist whose self-help books have made him a fortune. His wife Cristina is the overbearing mom-ager of their thirteen-year old son, Benjie, (Evan Bird)  a prodigious child star fresh out of drug rehab and their estranged daughter Agatha (Mia Wasikowska)  has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital. Agatha is now back in Hollywood making friends with a wannabe actor/writer limo driver named Jerome (Robert Pattinson) and with a new job as PA to one of Stafford's clients - the neurotic and tempestuous actress Havana Segrand, (Julianne Moore) whose dream of reprising her dead mother's starring role from the 1960s is beginning to haunt her. Although the film is laden with stars, John Cusack really doesn't see himself as one. He's just an actor, doing what he loves to do and says it's an actor's dream to have the opportunity to work with someone like David Cronenberg.  I spoke with John Cusack recently at the Toronto International Film Festival about working on the film and his thoughts on fame and success.