John Cusack Joins Growing Chorus of Hollywood Critics

John Cusack is biting the hand that feeds him, and he’s not alone.

Cusack, a progressive actor unafraid of criticizing like-minded souls, is savaging Hollywood in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

The Say Anything star understands the need for commercial projects. He’s long been a proponent of blending personal films with more mainstream fare. Many actors follow a similar approach to feed their artistic souls. Today’s Hollywood won’t even allow that balance anymore, he laments.

My friend Joe Roth ran Disney … He made things like The Rock and Con Air to make shareholders happy, but then he also gave six or seven slots to people he liked,” Cusack said. “I got to make High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank. Spike Lee got to make Summer of Sam. Wes Anderson got to make Rushmore. I had that memory of film and that’s gone.

He also slammed the ageism actresses face in the industry, saying even 20-something stars now look over their shoulder at the newest kids in town. The quest for youth, which doesn’t apply to most male actors, has grown to creepy proportions, he suggests.

It’s becoming almost like kiddie porn.

Another major player criticizing the system is David Fincher, the Oscar-nominated director behind The Social Network and the upcoming Gone Girl. He told Playboy magazine that major studios treat audiences like “cattle” and peddle movies as if they were glorified Big Macs, according to Variety.

And then there’s Chloe Grace Moretz, the talented teen now starring in The Equalizer with Denzel Washington. She’s apparently an old soul and a veteran of the business despite her youth. The 17-year-old told Allure magazine how studio heads have tried to sexualize her from an early age:

My mom has overcome so much in her life. She makes me want to stand up for myself. Stand up to the studio heads who try to tell me that I can’t have blonde hair; they want brown hair. Or I need bigger boobs, or I need to work out. Or I’m too skinny, so, like, ‘Eat a cheeseburger.’ I stand up for myself every day of my life. I grew up in a family of four boys. I’m, like, a born feminist. I’ve been a feminist since I was four years old.