How John Cusack Saved “Grosse Pointe Blank” With Creativity And Improvisation
For Minnie Driver, filming the 1997 dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank wasn’t just another movie project — it was an unforgettable creative adventure. In a recent appearance on James Corden’s SiriusXM show This Life of Mine, the actress opened up about how John Cusack, her co-star and one of the film’s writers, played a key role in turning the film around.
Describing the experience as like being on a “moving creative train,” Minnie recalled, “If you want to jump on board and make stuff, then do that and be willing. And I was.”
The movie follows Cusack’s character, Martin Blank, a hitman who returns to his hometown for a high school reunion and reconnects with his former girlfriend, Debi Newberry, played by Minnie. While the premise had promise, the early days of filming were rocky.
“We’re making this film, and the script isn’t really that good, and everyone knows the script isn’t really that good,” Minnie admitted, adding, “It’s kind of this great idea: hitman goes back to his 10-year high school reunion, reconnects with the girl he dumped when he disappeared to become a hitman. And we needed to shoot the film.”
After a few underwhelming days of filming, John Cusack decided to take action. According to Minnie, Cusack approached then-Disney head Joe Roth with a bold request: “Give us a week and watch the dailies and tell me if you don’t think that it’s great.”
With permission granted, Cusack, Minnie, and co-writers Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis retreated to Cusack’s New Crime Productions in Venice, California, and a hotel in Pasadena. There, they reworked scenes and injected new life into the script.
“We sat there bouncing ideas, going, ‘Okay, this is what’s going to happen. This is the beginning of the scene. Martin Blank comes to Debi’s house. We need to show that there is this history between these two, and she’s got to not make it easy for him, and it’s got to be hot,” Minnie said.
The result? A film filled with sharp wit, emotional depth, and chaotic charm. “…It felt like we were going to go up in flames every single day. But we didn’t,” Minnie laughed, adding, “And it got funnier and funnier and more and more sort of rooted in the insanity of the story.”
Looking back, Minnie described Grosse Pointe Blank as a unique experience in her career. Compared to her earlier films like Circle of Friends and Sleepers, this project felt like a creative revolution. In her words: “…I knew this was in a bubble, and I probably wasn’t going to make a film like this again because it was like a runaway train.”
