Veteran actor John Cusack told
The Guardian in an interview promoting his latest movie that the industry he has worked in since the 1980s is now a "whorehouse" where ageism is rampant, money is everything and "people go mad."
Cusack, 48, is starring in a brutal satire of Hollywood, "Maps to the Stars," that he said is not far off from the real thing.
"L.A. seems to be a place where a guy can say he's a 'life-coach-channeler-masseur,' " said Cusack. "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."
He singled out the studios' treatment of women as especially vile.
“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 porn. It’s [expletive] weird," he told the Guardian.
He said the studio system used to strike a balance between chasing blockbusters and making offbeat films, but no longer.
He said the ratio today is one "Maps to the Stars" for every six mega-budget, "Con Air"-type extravaganzas — and the latter "with a committee cutting the film who weren't a part of making it," said Cusack.
"If I could do something like sell watches in China, then I would do that, and just make movies like 'Maps,' " he said.
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