Tell us about the famous boombox scene in Say Anything. Didn’t you have Fishbone playing but Cameron Crowe dubbed over it with Peter Gabriel?

Yeah, but I knew he was gonna do it. I had Fishbone’s ‘Turn The Other Way’ playing, a dark, emotional song, but he put in Peter Gabriel’s ‘In Your Eyes’. It worked perfectly to the beats I was playing, and is a good example of our collaboration. Cameron came up with this fantastic character who he described as “revolutionary optimistic”, meaning he’s optimistic in the face of the real world. I said, “That’s fine, but you gotta make him a lot darker.” I was the guardian of bringing the shadow, he looked after the light. In our arrogance, we called it the Lennon- McCartney collaboration!

It’s an iconic scene, but it’s the angry defiance that makes it so memorable...

Yeah. Cameron talks about this a lot. It wasn’t a weepy, emotional moment. It wasn’t “please, please, come to the window”. It was, like you said, an act of defiance. Jesus, I loved working on that movie.

I started saying this awhile ago after a number of women compared me to "a John Cusack character" (the generic; I'm equal parts Lloyd and Rob Gordon, supposedly). Sadly, women waited until it was TOO LATE to realize that I'm a Lloyd Dobler archetype; now I'm a bitter and shriveled husk of depression and self-loathing.

There's a theme for my comments today, and it's not "I hate Valentine's Day!" It's "I hate high school!" For that is what Valentine's Day taught me.

Ah, Lloyd Dobbler. I have a big framed poster of him holding up the boombox. Jake Ryan never did anything for me, he didn't have an awful lot of personality. The actor who played him, though, went to my high school (before I was ever there).

John Cusack used to look like a cartoon.

John Cusack was my first celebrity crush. I remember being fourteen and just aching for him. Actually quite poignant.

It appears that countless women born between the years of 1965 and 1978 are in love with John Cusack. . . . But here's what none of these upwardly mobile women seem to realize: They don't love John Cusack. They love Lloyd Dobler.

I must admit I've never seen this movie, but its pop culture zeitgeist must have rubbed off on me because I've always been in love with John Cusack (who is the same age as me [born 1966] but still looks young and boyish).

I love that essay, matildaben. It's so true.

Say Anything is also one of the few romantic comedies that also appeals to men. Just about every guy I know has mentioned "kickboxing, the sport of the future" or referenced the "bought, sold or processed" speech at some point.

I was Lloyd Dobler in high school.

Well, except for the whole getting the girl thing. And a couple years back, I was very definitely Rob Gordon.
Sigh.