Earlier this week, Josh Horowitz dropped the video for his latest Happy Sad Confused podcast interview. Horowitz interviewed… John Cusack. A few months ago, I covered Cusack’s out-of-nowhere appearance at Comic-Con, where he tried to explain his semi-retirement and why he’s been largely in the wind for the past decade. It sounded like he was keeping busy, just behind-the-scenes. That being said, Cusack has always been a weird guy with an offbeat sensibility. He could have transitioned into character acting and (IMO) he could have a real second act on-screen after his leading-man heyday. But it is what it is. Well, in any case, Cusack appeared on Happy Sad Confused and now everyone’s talking about whether he had plastic surgery. The idea that someone would pay to look like this though??
John Cusack, 60, has sparked fresh plastic surgery rumors with a podcast appearance on Monday. The actor visited Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast to discuss his roles in classic rom-coms like 1989’s Say Anything… and High Fidelity in 2000, as well as his newly released graphic novel, Momo. In the comments, however, the conversation centered around something else: his appearance.
“What happened to his face?” someone asked. After clips of the episode were posted on Instagram, fans went into a frenzy guessing what cosmetic work was behind Cusack’s “unrecognizable” appearance. Commenters suspected that John Cusack’s appearance was the result of cosmetic tweaks.
Some speculated that Cusack had received neurotoxin injections and fillers, while others were convinced the star had gone under the knife, claiming they could see “the pull” on his skin.
“These guys and their facelifts!” one top comment read. Another person commented, “I’ll take super-obvious face lifts for a thousand, Alex.”
Many commenters expressed their disappointment in Cusack’s appearance, writing, “Oh John [what the f—] have you done to your face.”
“How sad is it that he’s done this to his face,” one person wrote. “He now looks odd and 20 years older. He also needs to stop dyeing his hair.”
I totally agree about the hair dye – his hair and hair color look awful and he should just go grey or have salt-and-pepper, whatever is natural. It would look so much better than this. As for the plastic surgery accusations… yeah, I can see the “pull” around his eyes especially. It’s not that he had cosmetic work, it’s that he had terrible cosmetic work and he had the wrong stuff done, I think. Too focused on his eyes when he should have gone to Turkey!
It’s crazy that the state of John’s face is getting so much attention, because he really had some good nostalgia-bait stories in this interview. He said he met with John Hughes about The Breakfast Club but the role went to Judd Nelson. He said he met with Quentin Tarantino about Pulp Fiction but QT never offered him a role. And he denied being offered Walter White on Breaking Bad.
Screencaps courtesy of Happy Sad Confused.
He’s starting to look like Mickey Rourke. 🙁
His eyes got the Kenny Rogers treatment.
I see Wayne Newton.
I saw Wayne too.
I see my grandma!
Mixed with Elon Mysk 😳
Now, I’m happy sad confused.
What the hell did he do to his face? He’s always had an interesting face. Now he looks like a mix of Billy Crystal and Laura Loomer.
He looks pulled and filled to me. Face lift, eye lid lift, and filler and botox injections. He should have just allowed himself to grow old gracefully, let his hair be grey, etc. He would get more acting work, doing supporting character rolls. Some actors can’t be leading men their entire careers. At least they can get those good character rolls, even when they look ‘old’, whereas women of a certain age just get erased.
To me, it looks like he only had his eyes and forward “done” which is making his whole face look wonky.
I find the receding hairline to be more distracting than anything else. Then come the fillers. Too bad. His quirky features are gone.
Yes I agree with this. He looks “weird” to us because his eye area is not the same age as the rest of his face. It’s not that the work is bad, per se.
This comment 🤣🤣
I love his sister, Joan. What is she doing now?
She lives in Chicago. I think she owns her own store.
She’s a voice in Toy Story 5, too.
Yikes. He looks like Elon Musk.
I saw the photo first instead of the headline and thought it was Elon. I don’t understand why people think they look good when they have bad procedures/surgeries.
That was my first thought.
Pretty much.
I had John Cusack as the type of guy that will happily grow grey and grizzly.
This is some Elon Musk + Wayne Newton special.🫤🫤🫤
Tom Jones, too.
He looks like Kevin Spacey.
Yes Evil Elmo was where my head went too.
The hair just makes it worse.
Whatever he had done to his eyes, etc is such a shame because he was such a cutie and had such a unique expressive face that would have likely aged fine. And if he needed eye surgery because drooping was impacting his vision, there are less extreme forms. Tbh when I see something like this, i do wonder how much of it is the person choosing a particular look and how much is a surgeon doing what they please
(like the women who have breast reductions, asking to have be reduced to a full C-cup, and instead wake up with a DD or larger because the (male) surgeon decided it looked better (no medical reason, just HIS aesthetic preference, leaving the woman with the exact same issues she was trying to get rid of (back pain, unwanted sexual attention, difficulty finding clothes that fit, etc)
You can see him at Cubs games regularly — this is not his first foray into cosmetic surgery. Wade Dobbler, where are you? 🙂
I loved the movie ‘A Sure Thing.’ It was adorable & endearing. I was on grounds at UVA when True Colors was filmed. If you haven’t seen it take a look a really good movie that is often overlooked and James Spader is wonderful. As for his face…a little scary but if it makes him happy, so be it.
I loved The Sure Thing, too, and I feel like no one else I know has ever even heard of it. Underrated!
You know I never think about the pressure that male actors also feel to look younger.
It’s rarely talked about. But I’m sure they also look in the mirror, see their fathers, and panic.
The irony is that they aren’t. How many times have we seen some grizzled old man be the love interest to some young woman who could be his granddaughter? No one bats an eye. “Silver fox” is an actual phrase used positively. No one is casting a “silver cougar”.
His character in High Fidelity revealed a lot about male insecurity that we don’t talk about. I read the book also. That’s the character, not Cusak himself, but I think it was his choice to adapt the book (and set it in Chicago rather than London). I suspect he identifies with the character. My husband who I still consider dead sexy absolutely feels like he doesn’t recognize his middle aged self in the mirror. If he worked in entertainment and saw himself on camera, I think he’d probably want to get work done.
is he wearing make-up???
My husband was watching a clip of this and called me over to the TV to see what John Cusack had done to his face and together we talked about how terrible he looked. I’m all for it. Let’s jeer at men’s terrible cosmetic work and aging as much as we do women.
Somehow John Cusack has managed to look like both Rosanne and Boy George. As for the bad hair, he clearly does his own color.
BWAHAAHAAAHAAA! I would never have put those two in the same sentence before – or loop in poor john Cusak, but maybe you’ve nailed it.
Wow.
Lots of botox in the forehead and bad bad bad bad mid-face filler that seems like it’s migrating south as he speaks. Same bad decision as when someone talked Joe Biden into injectables in ’24. Ai yi yi. 🫣
Lloyd Dobler would never.
His sister was at last Toy Story premiere and didn’t do any work to her face. I kinda feel sad I like his stories on the show and really enjoyed his acting previously.
The work makes him look bloated too. Ah the pressure
@Jem, truer words!
So in the comments about Queen Letizia I mentioned that I almost never “see” the “work” that she’s had done and that other claim to see, but I SEE this and it’s not good.
Good lord! Imagine going through all that surgery and ending up looking like that.
Umm, maybe the fillers haven’t settled yet?
He’s giving me major Christopher Walken vibes.
And agree he had something done. He looks so much more like himself in the comicon photos, and those were only a few months ago.
I do hoe that whatever John Cusack has done to his face settles and he stops messing around with it anymore. If he wants better definition he might want to consider going with more gentler process, like getting a Gua Sha and start using it consistently. Seems to be a big thing for models and such when I was watching “Beauty Secrets” by Vogue on YouTube!
He looks bruised around the eye corners, as if he’s still healing.
I liked his movie Say Anything a lot.
I still love Say Anything and watch it whenever it happens to be on! The soundtrack is pretty good, too.
I see Doug Hutchinson. 🤢🤮
He’s been in some terrific films, from Grifters to Hi Fidelity to the Sure Thing to Grosse Pointe Blank to Love and Mercy. He’s a good actor and didn’t need to do this.
Totally agree.
He’s been weird looking for a long time. Pre-pandemic (2019?) saw him at one of those Q&A / watch a movie things he’s been doing I guess to pay the bills. Nostalgia sells.
He walked out in a Lloyd Dobbler long coat, vape and baseball cap and I stg thought it was Billy Crystal he looked so old and out of shape. Idk if it’s surgery or just a life lived angrily online (the guy nonstop tweets, was posting as he was walking out to the stage). He’s just a sad single old guy living in Chicago where no one sees him except at Cubs games.
Why didn’t he mature into character roles, too vain? Difficult on set? Wrong politics? Bad luck or bad picker of projects?
Too many fillers. Deflate.
I just want to know what happened to his nose. Or is it only me?
Here’s what I don’t get:
He was NEVER a pretty boy type like Pitt (or even Cruise).
I understand why THEY would feel pressure to preserve their youth with fillers, cosmetic surgery, etc.
Cusack was an ordinary looking but likable young actor with solid talent.
I think he would’ve aged into much more interesting roles! I just don’t get it. Not at all.
Maybe it will calm down a bit and he will look more like himself? I agree on the hair comments but I should talk!