In recent years, John Cusack has appeared less on screen, and it’s for a reason. The actor reveals his latest creative project, which was the right move in stepping away from Hollywood.
The Being John Malkovich star told Variety at San Diego Comic-Con that he was ready to work on projects without executives weighing in. As a result, the actor has been working on his upcoming graphic novel titled Momo, set to release in September.
“I always thought [graphic novels] were the closest things to film, really,” he explained. “You’re picking out shots, they’re so cinematic.”
Above all, the 60-year-old revealed that a graphic novel was the best choice because he didn’t want to ” negotiate telling a story.” More often than not, there are a lot of voices behind an on-screen work, even if the project itself was created by its leading star. Cusack further explains that executives and studios funding the project often have an opinion.
“When you ask somebody to put $20 million or $30 million into a bank account [for a film], they want to have an opinion and they’re afraid and all that stuff,” he said.
John Cusack says he wrote a graphic novel because he "didn't want to negotiate" his creative vision:
"When you ask somebody to put $20 or $30 million into a bank account [for a film], they want to have an opinion and they're afraid and all that."
Cusack is debuting his graphic… pic.twitter.com/EpMB4HKXcx
— Variety (@Variety) July 24, 2026
Fans may have noticed that Cusack has been more selective with his work over the years, with a few projects here and there. In 2024, he only starred in the Chinese period drama Decoded, and in 2025, he appeared in Detective Chinatown 1900 and Fog of War. Cusack also took on a TV role in 2020, playing Dr. Kevin Christie in Utopia.
For Cusack, Momo was a chance to create something on his own terms alongside illustrator Ignacio Noé. He reveals that the graphic novel is simply a piece of work “done by two people,” and it “doesn’t happen today.”
“This was just like, I wrote it, and I said, ‘I like the story,’ and then I got this beautiful, wonderful artist, Ignacio Noé, to do the illustrations and so nobody edited anything I wrote or that he drew,” said Cusack.
“There’s no bull, and there’s no committee. There’s no computer up in Seattle that’s poll testing it.”
Momo will be Cusack’s first book publication that follows two fugitives in 1972 who form a dangerous partnership and set out to recover an ancient artifact for TV icon Jackie Gleason. The actor has previously been outspoken about the state of Hollywood and admitted that hits like Con Air and The Rockwere made to make shareholders happy. He’s commented that he had a certain memory of film that’s now gone.
Alongside the actor, his sister,Joan Cusack, made her first red-carpet appearance in 11 years at the premiere of Toy Story 5. She also commented on her decision to step away from Hollywood to raise her family in Chicago.
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