INTERVIEW: Nicolas Cage Is Inspired By And Terrified Of The Same Thing – BroBible

When interviewing an actor such as Nicolas Cage, its crucial to remember that despite the larger-than-life legacy theyve created over 30-plus years of filmmaking they, too, are just a person.

But its also not every day that you interview an actor whos achieved such a ubiquitous, omnipresent pop cultural status that his latest film sees him starring as a gonzo version of himself. Nicolas Cage has, perhaps deservedly, literally become cinema in and of himself.

Given the Oscar winners truly unique presence in American cinema over the last generation, it only felt right to ask the 58-year-old thespian big picture questions that forced him to look both backward at the legacy of his career and forward at the future of the industry hes helped shape.

During an exclusive interview with BroBible, we chatted with Cage aboutThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, his relationship with his audience, his famed acting technique, putting his own spin on Dracula, and more.

Eric Italiano: Folks, usually I start these off with a nice lengthy intro about the career of the person were going to speak to, but for the first time ever, and I genuinely mean this, it is a man who does not need one. Ladies and gentlemen, it is Oscar winner Nicolas Cage. How are you today, sir? And thank you so much for joining me.

Nicolas Cage: Well, Im happy to be here. Im doing well, thank you for having me.

EI: Youre looking quite sharp at this time of the day.

NC: Well, Im in New York, I have an interview down the road with the New York Times, so I thought Id put on a suit with a tie.

EI:Let me just say congrats on the film, it is an absolute riot. I was literally slapping my knee and stopping my feet from laughing so hard, and I think its very cool about this film is that its the first time that I could remember laughing that hard in a theater for a long time, and I think that thats gonna be the case for a lot of people.

NC: Im so happy to hear you say that and Im happy you saw it in a cinema with an audience.

EI: Packed house! It was a riot. It was phenomenal. So where I wanna start was that one of my notes was that this film very much felt like a celebration of the last generation of filmmaking. How does it feel knowing that your filmography and your work has become such a staple of pop culture in and of itself? And what do you think that it says about your work that youve created this sort of legacy?

NC: First and foremost, Im very thankful that it has communicated and that people have responded, and that there was a relationship there between the work and the audience. And that was something that was important to me. Growing up being a cinephile and a film enthusiast myself, I felt like when I saw Marlon Brando that I knew what he was doing and I had my own relationship with him, and that was a secret between me and him. And thats what I was hoping I could get with folks that would see my movies, that it would be deeply personal.

NC: And that, for me, I feel that its very validating and actualizing that whatever my dreams were with film performance, that they communicated with an audience. Whether they scared the crap out of Hollywood or directors or producers or not, that the audience was always with me. There was always a group of folks that were enthusiastic, and Im thankful for that, and Im deeply appreciative of that. And I think what it means is that I got a little bit of flack when I said, Oh, I dont like the word actor. I prefer thespian. I didnt say, dont call me an actor, call me a thespian, and that they turn into that. What I was trying to say was that the process for me speaks more to the idea of narrating a story of imagination or a story of emotion as opposed to lying about it, and so it was more of a spiritual process. And in that communication, if Im looking for the truth, the story, then hopefully you or the people in the audience will sense the sincerity in that as opposed to an act.

EI: I think if theres one thing that you conveyed in your career its that youre sincere when youre on camera. What are some elements of your craft that you tapped into while making this film that you maybe never have before or have for a long time?

NC: The idea of playing some version of oneself with ones own name in a movie is terrifying and daunting and that was brand new. I had never done that before. And because Im a student looking to learn something, and to grow, and because I was afraid of it. And because one of my mantras is, within reason, as long as youre not hurting yourself or someone else, the very thing youre afraid of is what you should go towards because you ultimately grow and learn something, I made this movie.

NC: But the whole time, I was trying to facilitate [director] Tom Gormicans version of so-called Nic Cage and also protect so-called Nic Cage because it had my name. I couldnt hide behind a character. The similarity, I would say that I had done before was Adaptation. I was playing the twins un Charlie and Donald Kaufman, but that movie was the most demanding movie Ive ever made, it was more dialogue than Ive ever had before. And to go back and forth each day from Charlie to Donald was acrobatic, and I dont know that I could do it again. But when I was doing the scenes with Nicky, it reminded me a little of that in a very small scale.

EI: Its very cool here you bring up Charlie Kaufman, he is responsible for my favorite film of all time, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

NC: Oh yeah! And also all of his movies are in and of themselves and unlike anything else. And whats interesting about Charlie, just to digress: I interviewed him at length and I got him on a tape, and I promised him I would burn all the tapes, so I could study his mannerisms and all that. But at one point I said to him, Id like to write to, too. Im terrified of writing. And I said, Do you have any recommendations? What can I do to get past my fear?. And he said, Well, what are you afraid of And I said, Well, Im worried that I wont have a beginning and a middle and an end. And he said, Well, if you just start writing, it will naturally have a beginning and a middle and an end. Whatever you write has a beginning and a middle and an end. It was so simple and. yet.. yeah, okay that took the pressure off.

EI: You actually touched on something that I was gonna ask you about. you said that playing yourself is a terrifying thing, so Im curious, what was the most difficult aspect of the self-examination nature of this film and what was the most rewarding?

NC: The most terrifying aspect of it for me was that it would lapse into some kind of Saturday Night Live kit of mockery. And also through the beginning of the movie, this character is neglecting his child and his daughter played beautifully by Lilly Shen. And theres no version of Nic Cage, so-called Nic Cage, or me Nic Cage that doesnt wanna spend as much time with his children as much as possible, so that was a complete departure. But Tom Gormican said, Were making a movie here and this is an arc, and we have to go from a guy whos overly career-minded to a guy who ultimately evolves into a sincere family, man.

NC: I am a family man at heart, my family comes first, so that was the first departure. The similarities, I think are, I do have an off-the-wall sense of humor, I do like to get goofy, I do like to make people laugh and be absurd, and make facial expressions at home to make my wife or make my children laugh. I enjoy that. And that is in the movie as well. I love the scene at the wall. It had to be three hits, there was a real percussion to that. Its all by design. Its like from the ridiculous to the sublime, it is by design.

EI: I dont wanna spoil, so I will just say the vehicle that allows that scene to come to be Ive been on that car before, and you did a great job of portraying that.

NC: I wont mention any words alluding to that, but Ive been on that car a million years ago with a certain friend of mine who everyone knows, and woo, never do that again.

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EI: Your acting technique has become famous in it of itself. What was it like applying that process even further inward to a character thats not literally you, but a version of you?

NC: It was surprisingly not very different from what I normally do. Film performance, for me, has been something almost spiritual. I have a very close relationship with my muse, and she has never forsaken me. Shes always there, and I always say thank you. And so when I did take on the role of so-called Nic Cage, I still checked in with my muse, and the process was very similar with the added element of being a producer, which I was on this movie. And also wanting to protect a character whose name is the same as mine. It was a very fine balance of not wanting to get too precious with the character, so I could also be making jokes about myself and sending myself up, so to speak, and facilitate the directors vision, but also I was making sure that this was still a person ad that this wasnt just a caricature.

EI: It is a comedy, but the family drama aspects of it work too, and they have a symbiotic relationship that makes each other stronger.

NC: I think so too, and Im glad you mentioned that. I saw the movie with a live audience in Texas, and it was a wonderful experience, and everybody was having so much fun. But I did walk away from it and I thought, Wow, so-called Nic Cage is a pretty soft guy. And I realized that that is me, I am vulnerable, I am genuinely soft with my children and my family. And I think if there was something that is genuinely truthful about the performance as far as it pertains to this character, its that softness within the family.

EI: I wanna swing over to a radically different role, but then this one youre playing yourself here that is unique and has never been done before on film. One of your next big roles is that of Dracula, which is literally one of the most legendary characters of all the time. Whats your process of adding your own layers to a character thats been done time and time again?

NC: Thats a really good question. Let me start by saying, I dont know how to say no to Dracula. So when they offered me Dracula and I was like, Well, yeah, this is scary. Lets bring that on. Its scary because the character is scary, but its also, as you so well pointed out, its been done. And its been done well. Its also been done not so well, and I thought that I could do something with my own enthusiasm about Brom Stokers book, as well as Christopher Lees performance in the Hammer films, as well as Langellas performance, as well as Oldmans performance, as well as Lugosis performance. I wanted to embrace elements of each of them, but also Orlock and Max Schreck, I wanna get some of the German expressionism and some of the body language in it.

NC: But by and large, Im channeling my father, August Coppola, who had a mid-Atlantic accent. I never understood his accent, and I was like, Dad, what is it this Why are you talking like that? He goes You wanna know why I talk like this, Nicolas? Because I made a decision to speak with distinction. Okay? Im a literature professor, okay? Thats how I talk. And its kind of amazing to me how much he resembles Christopher Lee. Its remarkable. So I just thought, okay, Dad looks like Christopher Lee, Dad kind of sounds like hes in a Hammer horror film, and I did dad in Vampires Kiss, so Im gonna bring him back from the afterlife as Dracula, combined with all the other elements I mentioned earlier.

EI: I think I speak for all film fans when I say I cant wait for that. That first look photo of you in that suit the dropped in the past week or so was just absolutely electric.

NC: Thank you. Well, Ill tell you that I had a lot of help with it. Its 50% of it. The performance is. Lisa with the wardrobe and the clothing design, and Christian with the makeup, and Jules with the hair. We did go for that 60s look, the Hammer horror film look. But then the clothing is well, I would wear that in my own life.

EI: Just dye that suit purple and youre there. Let me ask you, sir, because Ive gotta wrap here: you feel like an actor whos a uniquely deep thinker, so I feel like youre qualified to speak on this more than basically anyone Ive ever spoken to. What about the future of film inspires you the most, and what about it scares you the most?

NC: What inspires me the most is probably the same thing that scares me the most. And thats an interesting statement in itself, having to think about it now. But what Im inspired by is the idea of a young filmmaker whos doing movies on his or her cell phone, and its speaking to whats happening now in the culture and the zeitgeist around the world in terms of how information is deployed, and what will that look like in the context of a movie narrative, what will that person bring to the film-making narrative?

NC: Because the Z-Generation is the now, but its also scary because I worry about things like attention span and whats happened to me in terms of the memeification, which has been both positive and negative. Positive in that these memes have enabled people to give me another life in terms of, Well, thats an interesting expression, but it loses the context of how the character got to that point in the first place. Although maybe it will inspire people to look at the full two-hour movie or the 90-minute movie to see how the character got to that place.

NC: Im both inspired and scared of that. And its interesting, I said to my manager, whos also a producer on this movie, I said, You know, its always gonna be a young filmmaker who is going to bring something and reinvent me, and Im waiting for that person to show up. And he did show up with Pig, its Michael Sarnoski. I call him Arch Angel Michael. That person showed up. But that person is interested in slow movies and taking your time. He loved a movie called Revanche, I think it was a French film, and thats different. But I know Im gonna have an experience, were gonna meet someone whos doing cuts on their cell phone. And I dont know what thats gonna look like yet, but I know its going to happen.

EI: Well, Nic, sir, thank you so much for your time. You brought up Pig, I just wanna say quick, the last shot of that film stuck with me for weeks. You have been an icon for as long as Ive been alive, so I wanna thank you for your career and your contribution to this work, and also for showing people that its okay to unabashedly be yourself. I find it inspiring.

NC: Thank you, thank you. I make the movies for you, so thank you for saying so.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent hits theaters on Friday, April 22.

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INTERVIEW: Nicolas Cage Is Inspired By And Terrified Of The Same Thing - BroBible

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero