John Cusack Says He ‘Didn’t Know’ How to Approach His Iconic Boombox Scene in “Say Anything”: ‘Guys Have Pride, Right?’
- - John Cusack Says He ‘Didn’t Know’ How to Approach His Iconic Boombox Scene in “Say Anything”: ‘Guys Have Pride, Right?’
Desiree AnelloDecember 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM
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John Cusack; him in ‘Say Anything’ (1989) -
John Cusack admitted he initially “didn’t know” how to approach the iconic boombox scene in 1989’s Say Anything
“Guys have pride, right?” he quipped during a recent screening of the film in New York City
The actor also revealed that he helped director Cameron Crowe rewrite his Lloyd Dobler character to make it clear he was “choosing to be optimistic”
John Cusack’s defiant gesture of love in 1989’s Say Anything didn’t come as easily as it seems.
More than 35 years after Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler became a pop culture icon for holding up a boombox outside the window of Diane Court, played by Ione Skye, as Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” blared from its speakers, the 59-year-old actor admitted that he initially “didn’t know how to do it.”
“I didn't know how to do it because I thought the character was, you know, he's sitting outside whining, kind of saying, ‘Please come back to me,’ ” Cusack explained during a Nov. 30 screening of the film at New York City’s Kings Theatre. “Guys have pride, right?”
Before long, however, the 1408 star “figured that part out.”
“He knew something fishy was up, maybe with the father, or that somebody was in her head,” he continued of his character in the Cameron Crowe-directed film. “So I thought, I don't really know how to do it. And then finally at the end of the movie, I thought, ‘Oh, what if he's really bad? And he's more defiant.’ And that was what made it work.”
Cusack also revealed that he only agreed to play the iconic character if Crowe, 68, agreed to let him make some changes to the script. Because after reading it for the first time, he noticed that a lot of movies would portray young people through the lens of a “45 to 50-year-old professional writer in the mouth of all these people.”
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Ione Skye and John Cusack in 'Say Anything'
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As for what he wanted to change about Lloyd’s character? Cusack explained that “the character was more optimistic, but didn’t have any darker sides to it.” So, he wanted to make it clear that Lloyd was “choosing to be optimistic,” noting that it made him “sort of heroic.”
“It's like a [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney song,” he continued. “Paul McCartney writes, ‘You gotta admit it's getting better. It's getting better all the time.’ And then John Lennon says, ‘It can't get no worse.’ So that was the thing with that character.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
