John Cusack says iPhones spy on their owners: Its not that Im paranoid

Publish date: 2024-06-03

John Cusack

John Cusack has a new interview with the Guardian where he grumbles a lot in an endearing way. He’s 48 now. It’s bizarre to realize that Lloyd Dobler is now a middle aged guy who may no longer possess the upper body strength to stalk a girl via boombox. He’d just ring the doorbell.

John’s promoting his role in David Cronenberg’s Map to the Stars, a satire on Hollywood culture. Cusack plays a millionaire self-help guru who specializes in a cocktail therapy involving Freud-speak and deep-tissue massage. The film follows coping mechanisms of those who struggle to juggle fame, the studio system, and private lives. The Guardian calls Maps a “fever dream of modern celebrity.” It sounds interesting and also stars Sparkles and Julianne Moore. I’ve already covered Cusack’s statements on the nature of child stardom. Here he talks about his own experience with fame with a hefty dose of humor. He’s also railing against the misogyny of Hollywood:

His “fan” encounter at a White Sox game: “In the next box over there was a gorgeous girl – young, but she was looking right at me. Ohhhh … she’s going to come and meet me and I’m gonna … you know …’ I was going to be really flattered. And she was, like: ‘I have to take a picture of you! You’re my mom’s favourite actor.”

His Maps character: “LA seems to be a place where a guy can say he’s a ‘life-coach-channeller-masseur.’ It just seems to be ripe with all these frontier crazies. People are looking to turn their pain into beautiful art, but they also want to be famous. And there’s so much money — so of course all the predators come in.”

How much of the film reflects his own experience? “Almost everything. I got another 15, 20 years before they say I’m old. For women it’s brutal. [The] thing about if you’re 26, you’re menopausal? It’s only absurd because it’s a little bit further than the truth. I have actress friends who are being put out to pasture at 29. They just want to open up another can of hot 22. It’s becoming almost like kiddie pr0n. It’s f***ing weird. It’s a wh*rehouse and people go mad”

He adores Sparkles: “I think it’s very wise — and speaks highly of Robert [Pattinson] that he’s formed a thing with David. He can try to be good and have a space where he’s not just this product that’s going to be followed around by TMZ. That speaks to the healthier instincts of the guy. I don’t know if there’s that space for other people.”

He gets a little political: “We could argue now that we don’t have a functioning democracy. I would. That’s why I picked [Twitter] to fight. I know that this [he grimaces at my iPhone] can be turned into a microphone and they can be taping our conversations right now. It’s not that I’m paranoid. I know it.”

On film critics’ distaste of contemporary film: “Why wouldn’t you have contempt for the movie business? It sucks most of the time. My friend Joe Roth ran Disney [until 2000]. 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. I got to make High Fidelity and Grosse Point 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.”

[From The Guardian]

I love that John says, “It’s not that I’m paranoid” when talking about the privacy issues involved with smartphones. We’ve already seen what can happen when iCloud gets hacked. Is there potential for other privacy invasions? Sure. I don’t know if “they” could activate a mic to tape conversations without a phone call, but it’s not inconceivable. Laptops can certainly be used that way. In 2010, a Philly school district paid out a $610,000 settlement after (allegedly) remotely activating webcams to spy on students. Cusack sounds paranoid, but his words are steeped in the reality of our times. Apple has been trying to assure users that the iPhone 6 cannot be accessed remotely by the NSA or by Apple, but as infuriating as this seems to be to law enforcement agencies, it’s not reassuring to all users.

John Cusack

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

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