“It’s obviously a crime story, but we relate to these characters. It’s about the illusions of the American dream and fitting into that, and guys at the end of their rope. But I don't think we do it because we go, ‘Okay, let’s blend this genre with this’ or ‘let’s do this with this.’ You get inspired by the characters. Or you think, ‘Oh man, that’s a piece of writing that is so true. This is interesting.’ And then later we put labels on it to sell it or to do these things.
It does come in a tradition of those films, of the noir films, but it was just these portraits of white malehood in America that are just so disastrous. I thought [my character] Charlie had this great comic, quiet desperation to him. I thought there were some other themes that were so interesting.
There was no outward polemics to the movie. It doesn’t talk about left and right. I’m sure neither one of these guys care who’s president. It’s not about that at all. But there is this kind of subtle, these subtle jabs at consumerism. These guys kind of went into some version of the American dream about get the house, get the money, get the trophy wife, get the girl on the side, get the material possessions, get the great car. Get more women. Get more drink. And none of it’s making them happy and none of it’s fulfilling them.
I remember Arthur Miller said an era can be considered over when its basic illusions have been exhausted. And I thought of that. I go, ‘Yeah, these guys are just exhausted. None of it’s working.’ So they trade in that American dream and then go, ‘All right, we’ll do the outlaw dream where we make the big last score and hit the open road.’ And that’s pathetic and funny, too. These guys are lost in this dream world, or Charlie is. So why we respond to something, I don't know. Is it because it’s a noir? Is it a genre, or we’re going to do this genre? No. We just see these characters and we go, ‘Oh no, my god, they’re so fascinating.’”
John Cusack on the Contradictory Nature of the Characters in “The Ice Harvest:” “…I thought that was what was so real about it. I don't think anybody views themselves…most people view themselves as good guys but I don't think anybody views themselves as a bad guy. I think we rationalize things and we get put in these bizarre situations. These guys are definitely custodians of their own realities. They made their mess; they’re responsible for it.
No matter how low you get, I think people always want to be redeemed and they want to be free and they want to be loved. They want all those things. And then they find themselves in these horrible situations and then they have these impulses to be better than that. I don't know, that’s how I see them.”
John Cusack Reunites With His “Pushing Tin” Co-Star Billy Bob Thornton in "The Ice Harvest:" “He’s great. I really love working with him. Love it. Love it. He’ll go anywhere ,do anything. There’s nothing he wouldn’t try on a movie set. Not that you’d do it all the time, but the freedom of knowing somebody’s going to go with you anywhere you want to go. And he’s so funny and so talented, so sensitive, such a smart man.”
John Cusack Recalls Picking Up a Script and Seeing “Written by Richard Russo and Robert Benton:” “That’s one of the reasons I opened it. You see ‘The Ice Harvest’ and then you see Benton and Russo and you go, ‘Ohhh…’ You want to read. One of these guys is a Pulitzer Prize winner and the other guy, I don't know how many Academy Awards he’s won for writing and directing. He wrote ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ didn’t he? [He did] This is a great writer, a great filmmaker, so you know you’ll want to see what they’re going to do with this.
At first, I read it and I thought - it might have been just where I was in my life but I started reading it - and I went, ‘Oh, man, I don’t want to do [this]. This is too dark.’ I didn’t realize it was funny or a comedy because it was so real. It was so gritty. Then I started to understand there were some of those elements of satirical Americana in there. And then I thought it was funny. As soon as I realized it was going to be funny and grim, then I thought, ‘Oh man, this is something to do.’ And I wanted to work with Harold.”
John Cusack Praises His “The Ice Harvest” Director Harold Ramis: “He’s a great director. Amazingly bright man. And he’s been around a lot of these, I think, seminal things in comedy and film for a long time - and TV. ‘Animal House,’ ‘Second City Television,’ ‘Lampoon,’ I mean those actually were as groundbreaking to me in terms of thinking of comedy and film as Monty Python was. These were the real stars and subversive and intelligent and counterculture and disgusting yet sophisticated. He’s been around some of these really important things to me.”
