John Cusack
Delivers An Oscar Worthy
Portrait Of Poe!
By
Rych McCain, International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
Any middle or high school student who has taken
American literature has at one time or another been made to read and decipher
the short stories and poems of the early 19th century poet/author
Edgar Allan Poe. The new Relativity Media Films movie “The Raven” is titled after Poe’s most famous poem of the same
title. Poe was born in Boston in 1809. After getting himself kicked out of West
Point via court-martialed because he couldn’t relate to it, he spent most of
his life barely making ends meet while drifting through a string of editorial
jobs at various periodicals where he began to write poetry, articles, short
stories and one novel. Except for the 1845 publishing of “The Raven,” which met with great success via The Evening Mirror for which Poe was paid a whopping $9 dollars;
fame as a writer eluded him for most of his life and didn’t actually come until
years after his death.
 |
| John Cusack (Photo Courtesy of Relativity Media Films) |
The story of Poe and his most noted
writings have been the subject of many books, articles, Films and TV shows. In
this latest film version, actor extraordinaire, John Cusack brings Poe to life
via a very convening portrayal. Cusack’s brilliant but haunting delivery of
Poe’s personal conflicts coupled with his career and survival struggles that he
dealt with all the way to the grave is without question one of the first film
performances of this year truly worthy of an Oscar® nomination for “Best Actor”
when the awards season returns for 2013! Even though Cusack is one of the few
actors who totally shuns the Hollywood notoriety, he may be forced to duck and
dodge the rays of its spotlight should the Oscar® talk whip up to frenzy level
at year’s end.
When asked about the dynamics of his
getting a 19th century figure down who was shrouded in so much
mystery with many questions unanswered, Cusack responds, “I think the script
was terrific. James (the director) and I went through it with the writers and
some people and tried to pull as much of Poe’s own dialogue as we could from
his letters and his novels. So that we put that cadence and idiom into the
structure of this genre story which is basically kind of a Poe story where Poe
becomes a character in one of his own story’s. So you have Poe deconstructing
Poe. Even though it is fantasy, I was probably a little bit obsessed and drove
James crazy saying yeah, Poe said this and Poe said that. I was always trying
to use his own vernacular and his own words as much as I could in a fictional
setting. We were trying to square that circle in a way. There are volumes and
volumes of his thoughts on his writings. He wasn’t shy about his personal
memoirs.
What were the elements of this project
that made it appealing other than the obvious things? Cusack lights up,
“Working with James is a big deal for me because I think he is a talented film
maker and he’s got a big mind with a great capacity and I really wanted to work
with him. I thought as an actor playing Poe and trying to get under the skin of
this very, very complex genius would be great challenge and opportunity. I
think any actor would want to play him so I was just up for it 100 percent.”
After the study, preparation and finally portrayal of the man, what was
Cusack’s opinion of Poe? He reflects, “I think he was a perpetual orphan of the
world. His feelings of abandonment and loneliness from losing his mother, step
mother and wife I think made him feel like the orphan of the world. He was a
genius, kind of a bastard, he was a rogue; he was all of the things that you
think of him naturally like inward looking and melancholy. He was a wonderer
and a blasted soul and I think everybody can relate to that.”
Rych McCain Media/Syndication tm
(You DID Hear It From Me!)
E-Mail: feedbackrych@sbcglobal.net
