elebrity is death…celebrity - that's the worst thing that can happen to an actor," John Cusack once commented in an interview. Yet despite his best efforts, this thinking man's actor has become a star. Cusack has built his career steadily on quality movies rather than rocketing to the top on blockbusters. Nevertheless, he's become famous along the way. And a lead role in his latest film, Serendipity, which is being released on October 5, will only help fuel the celebrity fire.   In the movie he plays Jonathan, who meets and falls in love instantly with Sara (Kate Beckinsale), but the two leave it to fate to see if they will meet again. Ten years later, with both engaged and 3,000 miles between them, they decide to seek each other out and let destiny take its course. "If you're meant to be with someone do you just sort of let that happen or do you make your fate happen?" Cusack says of the movie's conundrum.   Indeed, the role of fate in one's life is an interesting question. Take Cusack's career, for example. Was he destined to become a star or did he play an active role in creating his celebrity status? The 35-year-old actor was born in Evanston, Illinois, to a father who is a documentary filmmaker/actor and a mother who is a (now-retired) teacher. He was still in grade school when he enrolled in Piven Theater Workshop, owned by Jeremy Piven's parents. (Coincidentally, Jeremy Piven has a role as Cusack's best friend in Serendipity.) By age 12, he had gained experience doing theater, voice-overs and industry films. And at 17, he made his film debut in the teen flick Class (1983). His sister Joan, also an actor, appeared in this film as well.   Roles in other brat pack movies followed, including Sixteen Candles (1984), The Sure Thing (1985) and Say Anything (1989). But luckily Cusack was able to break out of the genre. The Grifters (1990) offered him his first mature role. He plays a hustler who's caught between his mother (Anjelica Huston) and his lover (Annette Bening), both con-artists.   Over the years he's developed an impressive range, taking on dramatic parts in True Colors (1991) and The Thin Red Line (1998), doing comedic turns in Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and Being John Malkovich (1999), and even starring in the action flick Con Air (1997), a notable exception to his otherwise blockbuster-free résumé.   When questioned about turning down box-office hits such as Indecent Proposal and Apollo 13, Cusack told the L.A. Times, "I'm at peace with what my tastes are. How much money do you need? I don't collect cars."   He's got a penchant for playing off-beat characters in projects that provide personal satisfaction. Still it's not just Cusack's artistic integrity that makes us admire him as an actor. Nor is it his good looks - dark hair, flashing brown eyes and impressive 6'3" frame - which no doubt made an impression on girlfriend Neve Campbell. It's his ability to show the humanity and vulnerability of his characters.   We first saw it in Say Anything, where Cusack plays a high-school loser who courts a girl completely out of his league. It's also apparent in High Fidelity, where he portrays a music-obsessed, directionless boyfriend.   About that role, Cusack said: "Some men in their 30s are ready for a relationship, but they just can't seem to let go of the fantasy that they're going to meet a woman who'll make all the laws of gravity stop working…"   He not only understands a character's weakness, he conveys it with compassion. His skill is considerable. But acting is not Cusack's only talent. He started a Chicago-based theater company in 1988 called The New Criminals, where he produces and directs. He also formed a film production company with two high school buddies, New Crime Productions, to "develop material that transcends the genre of blockbuster formula films."   New Crime's first feature was the dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank in 1997, which Cusack co-produced, co-wrote and starred in. He also earned a writing credit for the High Fidelity screenplay, another New Crime Production. However, Cusack is not planning to give up acting any time soon. Its pull is too strong.   Just before falling in love in Serendipity, Cusack fell out of love in America's Sweethearts, where he plays one half of a Hollywood power couple that has split up but must promote a movie together. And he's slated to appear as himself in a film due out this fall called Adaptation.   Which leads us back to the question of whether Cusack was destined to become a star? Perhaps. But if so, he has embraced fate on his own terms. - Deena Waisberg