John Cusack clears up decades-long rumor about if he was offered role in this John Hughes movie
John Cusack clears up decades-long rumor about if he was offered role in this John Hughes movie
Marina WattsTue, September 29, 2026 at 5:37 PM UTC
0
John Cusack at San Diego Comic Con in July 2026Credit: Katie Jones/Variety via GettyKey Points -
John Cusack is setting the record straight on a rumor that he was offered the role of Bender in John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club.
“I think there was one time at one point where, I think, [Hughes] thought he wanted me to do it, and I think I would have done it,” the High Fidelity actor admitted.
Cusack appeared in Hughes’ 1984 film Sixteen Candles.
John Cusack almost served detention at Shermer High School.
The actor, known for his teenage heartthrob role as Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything, addressed the longstanding rumor that he was up for a major role in the John Hughes cinematic universe.
When his appearance in Sixteen Candles as Bryce was brought up on the Happy Sad Confusedpodcast with Josh Horowitz, the host admitted, “I’m surprised you actually didn’t pop up in other things.”
“There’s conjecture that you were offered the [Judd Nelson] role in Breakfast Club,” Horowitz added, referring to “the criminal” John Bender role in the 1985 movie.
John Cusack; Judd Nelson in ‘The Breakfast Club’Credit: Aaron Rapoport/Corbis via Getty; Everett
Cusack denied ever being offered the role, but revealed that there was “one time at one point where, I think, [Hughes] thought he wanted me to do it, and I think I would have done it.” Cusack called the Breakfast Club screenplay “a cool script,” but “it didn’t go that way.”
Around the same time that Breakfast Club came out, Cusack appeared in The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, The Journey of Natty Gan, and Stand By Me — all by the time he was 20.
Cusack also spoke about being a “teen idol,” a term that Horowitz quipped probably made him gag. “They say fame is something that you have to sort of deal with because you don’t really get prepared for it. Especially when you’re probably a teenager,” he began.
“But I was lucky because I think, maybe the way my parents were, or the people that I admired. You know, I hadn’t done anything. So I was never gonna buy my hype.”
Advertisement
The High Fidelitystar said he “wanted to work with great people and do great movies,” but knew he was still inexperienced as an actor. This, along with some words of wisdom from his father, also helped him stay focused on the craft.
Anthony Michael Hall, John Cusack, and Darren Harris in ‘Sixteen Candles’Credit: Universal
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
“I think my father was always like, he just said, ‘To be a celebrity is death for an artist.’ He was always about, like, what’s the script, what’s the part, what’s this thing saying, right? And so, he wasn’t impressed by any of that. So, I think that rubbed off on me.”
Cusack previously spoke about moving away from his film career during San Diego Comic Con in July while promoting his graphic novel, Momo, which he worked on with artist Ignacio Noé and is out today.
John Hughes in Chicago in November 1990Credit: Paul Natkin/Getty
“Nobody edited anything I wrote or that he drew. So it’s really a piece of work that was just done by two people,” Cusack said. “It was just me and Ignacio’s story, and that doesn’t happen today.”
“I didn’t want to negotiate telling a story really,” he added, referring to negotiations that can surround making a movie.
“When you ask somebody to put like $20 to $30 million into a bank account [for a film budget], they want to have an opinion, and they’re afraid and all that stuff.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
