John Cusack sets the record straight on whether he was once considered for ‘The Breakfast Club’ role

John Cusack clarified persistent rumors this week that he had once been offered the role of John Bender in John Hughes’ “The Breakfast Club.”

“No, I think there was one time at one point where I think he thought he wanted me to do it and I think I would I would have done it,” the “Say Anything” star told Josh Horowitz on his “Happy Sad Confused” podcast on Monday about the 1985 teen classic. “I thought it was a cool script, but it didn’t go that way.”

Judd Nelson ended up playing Bender alongside Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Emilio Estevez.

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John Cusack clarified that he wasn’t offered a part in “The Breakfast Club.” (Variety via Getty Images)

Cusack was in one of Hughes’ Brat Pack movies, however, playing Bryce in 1984’s “Sixteen Candles,” which also starred Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.

When asked about being a “teen idol” at the time, Cusack said he was lucky because his parents kept him grounded, and he was never really taken with himself.

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“I hadn’t done anything, so I was never going to buy the hype or anything. I wanted to work with great people and do great movies, but I knew I hadn’t done anything yet,” he said.

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The 60-year-old said that his actor father, Dick Cusack, always told him “to be a celebrity is death for an artist. Like, you know, he was always about like, what’s the script, what’s the part, what’s this thing saying, right?”

A movie poster for “Breakfast Club movie” is seen. (John W. Ferguson/Getty Images)

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He said that rubbed off on him, adding that he “didn’t take any of that stuff seriously as a teen.”

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“Sixteen Candles” was one of Cusack’s earliest roles, but he went on to classics like “Stand By Me,” “Con Air,” “Grosse Pointe Blank,” ‘the Thin Red Line,” “Being John Malkovich,” “High Fidelity,” and “2012.”

John Cusack and Iben Hjejle acting in a scene from “High Fidelity.” (Getty Images)

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Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez on the set of “The Breakfast Club” in 1984. (Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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Cusack lamented that lately however, while many films globally are “awesome,” he feels American cinema has gone “flat.”

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He said when he did “Say Anything” in 1989, the producer had worked on “seminal, amazing films” like “Paper Moon” and “The Last Picture Show,” so “her mindset wasn’t ‘How are we going to, you know, make the most money and who am I going to connect with here.’ It was like different values.”