John Cusack is best known for his wiseacre underdogs and oddball neurotics — the lovelorn puppeteer of “Being John Malkovich” topping them all.
This year, he’s been steeped in drama. He played a terrorized hotel guest in “1408” earlier in the year. In the December release “Grace Is Gone,” he plays a widowed father.
On Friday, in “Martian Child,” Cusack is sci-fi novelist David Gordon, who struggles to cope with the death of his wife. He adopts Dennis (Bobby Coleman), an orphaned boy convinced he’s an explorer from Mars.
It’s a sensitive story that examines notions of conformity, childhood and parental love. For all its seriousness, the film’s tone is somehow lightened by the subtle irreverence Cusack projects with that pout, that raised eyebrow and that exasperated way he combs his fingers through his hair.
Cusack was intrigued by the fact that the role was dramatic but very interior. Gordon, like Dennis, is an outsider who has found a way to mask his eccentricities. Gordon is drawn to Dennis because he recognizes himself in the boy and, Cusack said, believes if he can save the child, he can somehow save himself.
Then there’s the nagging suspicion that maybe this kid really is from Mars.
“The idea of human beings trying to find each other is always kind of lovely,” Cusack said. “I also like the idea [that] it had a little bit of magic realism in it, which is fun.”
To preserve the authenticity of Cusack and Coleman’s budding friendship, director Menno Meyjes tried to film their scenes in chronological order. Early on, Cusack kept his distance from Coleman so they could discover their relationship on camera. As the film progressed, Cusack engaged the boy more and more.
The characters “sort of met as strangers and through the course of the film develop a relationship,” Cusack said. “So we let that happen during the process. You could just let the relationship develop, and we could use the newness of knowing each other to our advantage.”
“Martian Child” marked Cusack’s first portrayal as a parent, though he’s an involved uncle to Joan Cusack’s two boys. Working with kids, he said, isn’t so different from working with adult performers — though the crew is generally more sensitive.
“When the kids are around, everybody gets the joke to be quiet on the set,” he said. “It’s almost as if everybody gets the rules of what it takes to get the performance. You actually have a better work environment.”
Cusack, 41, has about 50 films to his credit as an actor and a few more he’s co-written and produced.
“I’ve always felt like I was pretty lucky; I’ve never gotten pigeonholed in one type of movie,” Cusack said. “That’s kind of how I like to do it.”
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Cusack, 41 , was born in Evanston, one of five kids of a filmmaker dad and math teacher-political activist mom. He was a child stage actor in Chicago, then earned fame for his early comic roles and cult status in Cameron Crowe’s “Say Anything.” Now, Cusack has his own production company, New Crime Productions.
