Record shops have enjoyed a resurgence in the 25 years since John Cusack starred as a store owner in “High Fidelity.” And to the thousand or so fans who bought tickets to see the actor speak after a screening of the movie on Friday night in Minneapolis, Cusack himself seemingly has never dwindled in popularity.
For about an hour, the Chicago area native answered questions and heard a lot of fawning over what that film and several others he starred in still mean to the attendees of Friday’s “High Fidelity” screening at the Uptown Theater.
“Grosse Point Blank” and “Better Off Dead,” in particular, were singled out as favorites among his other films — but not by Cusack, who, it turns out, has a hard time ranking his movies or anything else. That’s a sharp contrast to his “High Fidelity” character Rob Gordon, who offers a nonstop barrage of top 5 lists throughout the film.
“I suck at it,” he confessed to the crowd. “I could never choose a top-5 anything. It depends on my moods.”
With local club DJ and the Current’s “Transmission” radio host Jake Rudh serving as moderator, Cusack, 58, did single out his favorite Minneapolis music act: The Replacements, whose 1983 song “Within Your Reach” was prominently featured in another of his best-known movies, “Say Anything.” He also sang Stevie Wonder’s praises but did not exactly apologize for singling out “I Just Called to Say I Love You” in an unflattering light in “High Fidelity.”
“It was a terrible song,” he said. “I’ve made some terrible movies, too. It happens. There’s just no way around it.”
Also the co-screenwriter and co-producer of the big-screen adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name, Cusack said the British author was surprisingly cool about “High Fidelity” being set in Chicago on screen instead of the book’s London location.
“My book is about more than British accents,” he recounted Hornby telling him.
