John Cusack became a bona fide movie star as a teen, but over the years he has opted to live a quieter life.
Cusack made his film debut in 1983’s Class. One year later, he appeared in Sixteen Candles alongside Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. His performance led to him starring in Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing and Say Anything.
While Cusack cemented himself as a teen idol in the ‘80s, the actor started to expand his horizons. He pursued roles in various genres including the crime thriller Grifters, black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank, romantic comedy Serendipity and more.
Cusack has appeared in fewer projects in recent years. His last film credit is for the film Fog of War, which was released in 2025. The following year, Cusack explained why he stepped away from acting during a rare appearance at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2026.
While some of today’s biggest A-listers got their start in the ’80s, many of their famous contemporaries in the “Me” decade live quieter, more low-profile lives today. From Tom Cruise, who bravely donned those tighty whities in Risky Business, to the boys and girls of the Brat Pack, click through to see which stars got their big breaks in the 1980s — and see where they ended up!
“I wanted to tell a story, but I didn’t want to negotiate telling a story,” he said while explaining his graphic novel Momo. “When you ask somebody to put $20 or $30 million into a bank account [to finance a film], they want to have an opinion and they’re afraid and all that stuff.”
Keep scrolling to see what Cusack has been up to since stepping out of the spotlight:
John Cusack Makes Rare Appearances at Screenings of His Past Films
Every once in a blue moon, Cusack will make an appearance at a screening for one of his previous movies and do a Q&A for fans. In January 2026, the actor showed up for a showing of Serendipity at the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall in Munhall, Pennsylvania, as well as a screening for Say Anything in El Cajon, California. More recently, he attended a screening for Grosse Pointe Blank in Chicago back in June 2026.
John Cusack Wrote a Graphic Novel
During Comic Con 2026, Cusack proudly shared that he wrote a graphic novel titled Momo.
“I got this beautiful, wonderful artist, Ignacio [Noé], to do the illustrations,” he said at the time, per Variety. “Nobody edited anything I wrote or what he drew, and so, it’s really a piece of work done by two people. … It was just me and Ignacio’s story, and that doesn’t happen today. It’s an anti-algorithm thing, like, there’s no committee and there’s no computer up in Seattle that’s poll-testing it.”
John Cusack Is a Political Activist
Cusack identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He has been candid about being anti-war and speaking out against President Donald Trump. On his Instagram page, Cusack frequently collaborates with the Freedom of the Press Foundation to advocate for spreading the truth.
John Cusack Is Selective About His Projects
The actor candidly shared at a 2025 screening for Say Anything that he doesn’t enjoy how the movie industry has prioritized making sequels or reboots.
“I was lucky that I never had the desire, or no one asked me to do any sequels. There’s one that I think would be interesting to do, which would be 1408,” Cusack quipped, per People. “Just because … I think today, you know, most movies suck. There’s still the horror psychological, you know, that Rod Serling kinda stuff. That’s still pretty pure. If you can pull off something like that, it’s fun.”