John Cusack Was Surprised By 'Gifted' Hillary Duff 5/15/08

John Cusack was blown away by Hillary Duff's performance in their new movie War, Inc., and considers her brave for risking her child-friendly pop star status.

Hillary Duff ditched her clean-cut image to play a trashy Middle Eastern pop singer in the Cusack-directed war satire, which also stars Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei and Sir Ben Kingsley. And the actor/director admits he was shocked by her "wonderful" performance. Cusack says, "We didn't know her.

We knew she wanted to do the movie, which takes a lot of courage for a young girl who's already got huge fan base, who's a big pop star. "I don't think any of us knew she would be quite as gifted, as intelligent as she is. Not only did she hold her, I think she's every bit as charismatic and wonderful as those other three actors."