John Cusack in "2012"
John Cusack in "2012"
Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. "2012" is an epic adventure ...
Rating: PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language
Length: 158 minutes
Released: November 13, 2009 Nationwide
Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover
Director: Roland Emmerich
Writer: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - John Cusack is sitting in the center of a stark hotel conference room in this ski resort. He's been here once before, on vacation. This time around, he is working, promoting his new disaster movie, "2012."
The hotel is a few hours' drive from Yellowstone National Park, but snow and icy road conditions on this unseasonably cold October day make it all but impossible to get to the scenic preserve.
''I'm hoping I can get there tomorrow," says the Chicagoan, "if the weather cooperates."
Yellowstone figures prominently in "2012," a big-budget, effects-laden tale about the end of the world, though none of it was actually shot there. (Kamloops in British Columbia stood in for both Yellowstone and a pivotal scene in Tibet.)
Co-written and directed by the German master of mayhem Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day," ''The Day After Tomorrow"), "2012" amps up the action and devastation in an attempt to be the mother of all disaster movies. Fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis - you name the natural disaster, it's here.
Bringing it to a human level, Cusack plays a Los Angeles limo driver who bears witness to the awful series of catastrophic events that threaten to wipe out mankind. A failed husband and novelist, Cusack's Jackson Curtis is trying to maintain a relationship with his two kids, who live with their mother, when all hell breaks loose.
Jackson gets an inkling of impending doom while on a weekend camping trip with his kids in Yellowstone. A middle-aged hippie-prophet (Woody Harrelson, in perfect wacko form) warns him about an ancient Mayan prophecy, which predicts the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012. Jackson initially is dubious, but when a massive earthquake strikes Los Angeles on that date, he rushes back to rescue his ex-wife and her boyfriend.
As the City of Angels slips into the Pacific, Jackson does all he can to get his loved ones to safety, dodging fire, crumbling roads and falling debris. He goes so far as to hook up with a Russian mobster (who's got a seat on a secret rescue boat) to save his family. It's one of the most physically demanding roles Cusack has ever played, and he says he enjoyed every minute of it.
"There's something subversive and crazy about having the thrill of destruction without any real tragedy," says Cusack about making a disaster movie.
"Roland blows up every Western icon - including the White House again - which is geeky cool," he adds with a chuckle.
At 43, Cusack paced himself on the stunts. Scenes requiring him to run through a maze of falling debris and then tumble off a ledge could have spelled big trouble. One wrong move, and he could have been injured. So the veteran actor kept Emmerich apprised of how much more he was capable of doing.
"Movies like this are hard to do because it's like running a marathon," he says. "I don't want to pull a hamstring because we've got five months of shooting to go. But you don't want to complain about it because you're lucky to have the job. So I'd tell him, 'OK, Roland, I've got 10 takes in me, but not 20.' "
''2012" reunites Cusack and Amanda Peet, who plays his estranged wife, Kate. The two previously co-starred in 2007's "Martian Child" and the 2003 thriller "Identity."
"I love it when I get to work with people I've worked with before," he says. "I have such a shorthand with her."
To Cusack "2012" is much different than other disaster films.
"In most of these movies, once the explosions start, the characters stop," he observes. "But this movie actually gets more intimate as it goes along. Roland reverse-engineered it."
Cusack says he doesn't give too much credence to the so-called Mayan prophecy, or at least the way some people interpret it.
"I think there may be a shift in consciousness," he says. "At least, I hope so."
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