John, here you've got a film based on a book which was set in north London, written by one of this country's most lauded young writers, and yet you transpose it to Chicago. What were the difficulties in that?

There really weren't many difficulties. I mean, strange as it may sound, the stuff that I found most interesting in the book really had nothing to do with London, you know. And growing up in Chicago and being all over the States, I knew that whole world, so we just took away the accent and took away some of the, you know, English language. But the stuff about men and the relationships to women and themselves, and their obsession with pop music and how they use pop music autobiographically, that all seemed very American to me, so I knew that we might piss off some Englishmen. But Nick Hornby approved of the transposition, so once he did I thought, "Lets do it!"

This is a film which, once again, you've written, or co-written and you star in. You've done this quite often. It's quite an unusual thing in Hollywood these days for American stars to write their own films.

Yes, let me think. I don't know too many actors who do it, but there are a few.

And were you involved heavily in the casting or was that all Stephen Frears?

No, we were there. I was there for the whole thing. But once we sort of found or came up with the idea of Jack [Black, who plays Barry] you know, it was case closed. He sort of had to do that role. I think he really does an amazing job in it.

Bruce Springsteen, the boss in the movie. A part written specifically for him, knowing he'd do it, or was this just a happy accident?

Well, we sort of came up with the idea thinking it would never happen, but it would be a good read, you know, for the people who were making it. And then we thought, "Bruce will never do it, so we'll call up someone else." But then I'd known Bruce for a while, and he's a friend, so I said I should probably just take a chance and ask him, and when I did he started laughing and said, "Send it to me," and I sent it to him and he said he'd do it. So, we got kind of lucky.

John Cusack on Hollywood, and working with Stephen Frears once again.