Nicolas Cage Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

he was so obsessed with his lizards all he wanted was to photograph the lizards he never wanted to put me in a close-up he photographed everybody else in close-up but not me but I remember to my relief a few fans were there and they said can we please have a picture with you and they got right there and said sure honey and we took a great picture again I said you see burner some people do want me in a close [Laughter] [Music] moonstruck I had made a movie called Peggy Sue got married cher had seen that movie and she immediately said I saw Peggy Sue got married and I thought I was your performance was like watching a two-hour car accident or a train wreck I was kind of amazed that she saw it that way and also that she wanted to work with me as the result of seeing a two-hour car accident but that she wanted me to play ronny cammareri and it was deeply flattered because I was still am a fan of cher there's a moment where I raised the wooden hand and I I said I lost my hand I lost my bride and I think I got that idea from watching Fritz Lang's Metropolis I think there's a moment in that movie I'm not a Harper censored and it's been a while since I've seen it but I do believe I was inspired by a moment in that movie when the doctor ripped off the glove from his metallic Han and he did that and I wanted to be kind of German expressionistic like the old metropolis movie by Fritz Lang when I read the script the fantastic John Patrick Shanley script I somehow responded to it like Beauty and the Beast and I had been a big fan of Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast Jean morees performance I mean as the Beast and he would talk like that in a French in French fighting me hold he's almost a shame arrhythmia oh I wanted to speak like that because I had responded to the script that way and about two weeks into production I went home for the holidays and I got a call from the director Norman Jewison who said Nick the dailies aren't working I want you to drop the Jean Marais this this voice you're doing is not working and I dropped the Jean Marais but what's fascinating is when John Patrick Shanley and I talked about the script he said the original title was not moonstruck it was the wolf and the bride so I was I think I was tapping into something from a screenwriter Raising Arizona H I'm McDonough to me was like a living cartoon I saw him as Woody Woodpecker and so much so that I even put the thrush muffler tattoo you know the woodpecker with the cigar and red feathers went back and the Wynn is a tattoo for H I'm ik Donna put it on the characters arm that would rub my hair and so static electricity would make it lift up so that I was like Woody Woodpecker and would look like what do you woodpecker I must have auditioned for that movie about 20 times Joel and Ethan they would laugh every time but then they would say during the audition we're laughing we can't stop laughing but we don't know why we're laughing so there was a little bit of trepidation and then they cast me and I was thrilled because I knew right away when I had read the script that this was gonna be a winner that this could really be something special about a week into rehearsals Joel took me aside he said you know I could have cast Kenan Kozma in this bar or I could have cast this thing I said well why did you cast me yeah and that that stopped that conversation Ethan was a great audience Hugh just he was always laughing in the back in the corner he'd be laughing at every scene and that was actually a terrific experience for me and I that's why I first coined the phrase I'm getting that super8 feeling I used to make movies with my brother in the backyard when we were children and we had a super 8 camera that my father gave us and we would make movies and that super 8 feeling I've often said is the feeling where you're making a movie simply because you love the movie you're not doing it for money you're not doing it for awards you're doing it simply because you love the story you're telling and the filmmaking experience itself and I remember Joel said I said I'm getting that super 8 feelings and well that's good that's good let's go with the keep that going leaving Las Vegas when I read that script I thought it was the coolest relationship I'd ever seen even though one was an alcoholic and the other was a prostitute I thought there was so much compassion in that relationship and I had seen all the great alcoholic performances ray Milan and Lost Weekend Jack Lemmon and days of wine and roses Dudley Moore and Arthur or Kris Kristofferson and stars born all brilliant and I took something from all of them from Kristofferson I took that beautiful smile even though he was drinking himself to death that smile from Dudley Moore the idea that he didn't know how to modulate his volume but it wasn't until I saw Albert Finney and under the volcano I saw him walk through the streets of Mexico and I went that guy's really drunk and I asked about it I asked Mike because Mike had worked with Albert and I said was he really drunk and it got back to me that Albert's you know you tell Nick that I would take a swig and I would spit it out just so I get the taste of it I wasn't really druggers okay cool and and then my cousin Roman Coppola he said you should go hire Tony Tony Dingman who was at that time you know I'm very drunk I've also a poet hire him and just watch him and have him be your drinking coach so I had Tony on the set with me all the time the poor guy he'd be curled up in a fetal position on her in my in my trailer as I'm playing bongos because I was trying to play bongos they get some kind of syncopated rhythm some sort of music for the character but I would watch him he would say the most poetic drunken things like you do not kick the bar you lean in to the bar because it's not vino veritas it's in vino veritas he would just spout these things out of course I put them all in the movie because it's not vino veritas it was a four-week shoot thank God it was only a four word shoot because there were a couple scenes where I really wanted to be hammered because I wanted to be out of control and have them photograph that so I could reach that kind of credibility of authenticity of what I saw on the streets of Mexico and under the volcano the scene that comes to mind is the casino scene where I say I am his father and I flip the table and have a blackout I didn't know I was gonna go there I knew I wanted something extraordinary to happen and they kept in they put it in the movie to the 16-millimeter I would say that it is phenomenal for film performance when you have a camera that big or that big and it's 35 millimeter cameras with these lenses like that in your face that is something you have to try to get past you have to be bold with that but it's not something you really want to think about when you have a camera that's that big they're just flowing around anyone can be a great actor and it catches the most minimal nuances and you're not even thinking about the cameras so it's effortless I can tell you specifically that I made that movie saying to myself I'm never gonna win an Academy Award nobody wants to make this movie and because I wasn't gonna win an Oscar I said I don't care let's just make the movie let's be down and dirty let's be you know punk rock or jazz rock or whatever it was and so it was completely unexpected which is to say I'm deeply thankful I think gary oldman once said the sound of applause is not to be ignored you know and I am thankful that that happened but I was totally a surprise Cameron Poe was really a fantasy of as a young boy in Long Beach California growing up skinny kid who read Incredible Hulk comics you know who wanted to not be bullied and you know wanted to be Cameron Poe that was my fantasy of who I wanted to be of who you know I I would have liked to have been at that age so I was kind of creating a character that was like the uber version of myself if I was a southern badass you know that's who I that was my expression of that even though I'm not bad it was an interesting set to be on it was a completely testosterone addled set everyone doing push-ups and chin-ups and trying to see who could won faster and it was always some sort of competition happening on that set of machismo I think the genius if is a genius of that movie and I think Jerry Bruckheimer's genius I would say is that he was he knew how to make formula pictures you know extraordinarily commercial but he came at it with an independent edge I mean all the actors in that movie people like ving and John Malkovich and you know Buscemi we're up we all came out of Hindi movies so that was kind of his I think Jerry's true genius with that they saw faceoff was really the direct result of another movie I made called vampire's kiss which I considered my laboratory and in that movie I really wanted to find a way to express again my kind of German expressionistic dreams aka you know like Alan Oz ferati or Calgary where these actors were doing is extraordinary phases of body language that was not necessarily natural but expressionistic that's my favorite movie I've made by the way and I knew that I had to find a vehicle that would allow me to do that where there was some mechanism of truth or reality in that the character was losing his mind so his behavior his body language his facial expressions were also the result of a man who was having a nervous breakdown so therefore I could become very stylistic so a lot of the the body language and facial expressions went into faceoff but John Woo who is also you know very operatic and musical extraordinary filmmaker he showed me his movie bullet in the head I knew once I saw that movie where I could go in terms of style and in terms of right up against the edge you know operatic if you will emotion and so a lot of the stuff I discovered on vampire's kiss which I enjoyed I could pull it into a movie that would later become a mainstream and commercial film so I was like a dream come true I here I was doing these kind of abstract you know ontological facial expressions and in a movie that was gonna make a ton of money which I was thrilled with the results we had the luxury of looking at each other's dailies I would see what John would do and then he would see what I would do playback and then we could find ways to mirror one match it when I first reported for work on that movie it was the stuff I did in the priests attire like the the whole head banger head rolling stuff and the clapping and the grabbing of the young lady and all the crazy stuff about Handel's Messiah and I know John saw that and he was so we're gonna go with that kind of act [Music] but really he he got to play cast or more than I did I was only caster for like that once the credits were over I was done playing caster and then he just took it and ran with it for the rest of the movie one day I would like to do a movie where I'm casting through the whole movie bringing out the dead wasn't too hard to act in that movie I think it was about a not a full six months but running close to six months all at night and paramedics you know this particular paramedic was working entirely at night dealing with exhaustion he was approaching burnout I would work all night and then I would still get on a plane for my weekend visit with my then child son Westen at the time so I could have my weekend visits with him then get back on a plane go back and report for duty so needless to say I was very tired but all that just went into the character I went on a few ride alongs which was I don't know if it was the most ethical thing to do cuz but I wanted to do the research Hell's Kitchen Manhattan that whole area at that time was not one we were filming was not the same thing as it was when Connelly wrote the book or his experience it was a much more dangerous and scary place I think whoever was mayor cleaned it up pretty good but I went on the ride alongs and I do recall one kid african-american kid got shot through the ass and I'm in the back of the wagon you know and he still got gum in his mouth and you know I'm worried he's gonna choke and the other Primerica like injecting him and getting him ready and prepping him and I just give me a girl it took the gum out of his mouth because I thought he was gonna choke but he's looking at me you know so I don't know if he thought he was hallucinating or what but he recognized me it was just very strange anyway I did call Marty I said Marty I had some pretty interesting experiences but it's not the same Hell's Kitchen that Connelly wrote about but I did learn about a few things that were pretty hardcore you know adaptation Wow an adaptation when people say I love Donald I get jealous because I don't remember playing Donald I was so into the Charlie Kaufman headspace and Charlie and I would spend hours interviewing I would interview Charlie a tape recorded all the interviews well I'm gonna let you do this if you promise it never goes anywhere and I said Charlie I'm gonna light them on fire I promise you and I did I poured kerosene I lit them on fire they're all gone but I went through all the motions with Kaufman I said well let me see you get angry what do you like me he was a good actor actually Charlie Kaufman is a very good actor it was twice as much dialogue as everybody else and I would go to set and if I got out of bed on that side and I was in a good mood I said let's start with Donald today and if I woke up the next day and I got on a bed on that side and I was in a bad mood and crank it say let's let's start with Charlie today so we sheets the whole thing one way this is either Charlie or Donald and then take what I did put an earpiece in my ear and do playback well I looked at a tennis ball on a stand like that over there you know and imagine I'm either Charlie O'Donnell and talking to one another it was probably the most acrobatic challenge as a thespian I've ever had and I'm not even sure I could do it again I I I'm not sure I could but anyway it's cold for my killer to have this modus operandi because at the end when he forces the woman who's really him to eat herself he's also eating himself to death I've been saying Marlboros I don't know what that word means I've written myself into my screenplay that's kind of weird huh you know Meryl was great and Chris was great and you know they got their Oscars but cool it was just it's all good there you know they were brilliant in the movie but it was the most challenge anything I've ever done national treasure I did not expect national treasure to be ahead I did know that I was working with a high school classmate named Jon Turteltaub who was the director the two of us were crack-ups I mean in high school we were always making jokes and cracking each other up and he got the lead role in our town and I got the crummy part of constable Warren and he never let me forget it and I got my revenge when I got on the cover of GQ and John admitted to me and I went to the store and there you were on the cover of GQ how come Nick's on the cover of GQ and I'm not on the cover of GQ was that kind of relationship high school kids but that that kind of fun and and playfulness carried through with the making of national treasure so I think I really have to credit John for the humor and the success of the movie and Jon Voight actually said you know turtle tops terrific he he knows how to make a souffle one false move this whole thing is gonna fall apart but somehow Jon Turteltaub managed to put it together in a way that was delectable and delicious and but I have to attribute the success of that film to him Bad Lieutenant corner Paul knew I was the big fan of both burners and Klaus Kinski and having seen all of their movies I knew not unlike what I knew when I saw bullying ahead with John Woo where I could go with performance and I really wanted to challenge Verner I wanted to be the California Klaus Kinski I wanted to go all out and even scare him at times to get to the core of that character and I remember I had this vial of something called inositol which is like a saccharine substitute it looks like coke but it's not it's sugar really or a sweetener and I would psych myself up you know and I'd snort this and try to get into the headspace and Vernon everyone's kind of getting a little flipped out about my psychic process to get this seen because I'm going nuts and I'm the high on coke and burner was like now Nikolaus lot is in that vial and I'm and this is right before action and I'm now the California Klaus Kinski I don't have to say it's not coke you know but because it's gonna break the imagination because I'm psyching myself up I was completely dry on that movie I wasn't drinking I wasn't nothing there's an impressionistic performance but nonetheless he broke my concentration and I say get a coke get off my set yeah New Orleans this is my city just everybody was like that and then they said action and it was I was the guy I was in the headspace I'll take 25 percent of it though I'm God means you get above price that's one way of looking at it the other is you get to keep 75 percent and not go to prison for the rest of your life man panis is really a visionary he's a genius he's not like anybody else who makes a movie once every eight years he his black rainbow movie I didn't sleep for a week after I saw that originally he wanted me to play Jeremias and I was playing army of one at that time I was in Vancouver I had long white hair hair and long white beard and he said to me I want you to play Jeremiah sand and I said well why he says because I you know I think the characters like a cloud California Klaus Kinski he literally said that and I said well I am the California Klaus Kinski but I don't want to play Jeremiah sand I want to play red and he said well this is a movie about age vs. youth and I don't see his rep because of that at that point I did look like father time I was fully you know Gandalf so it didn't work out and then about a year later and Elijah Wood was the one who brought us together and I'm thankful for Elijah that he did that but he came up with the idea that I should play red and red was a character that I I wanted to portray because I felt I do have the power of imagination but I also felt I had the life experience to play red and have you been through love and loss and going through you know what was going to be my third divorce and also my father had passed away and that really stuck with me and so I knew I had the emotional content to play red because red is really a being who's contending with loss loss of love and it's interesting because if you look at Paris's notes about the picture he was contending with the same thing not in terms of the romantic love but more in terms of familial love and loss so we were in step the whole way and I think we we found a way to calibrate the amount of emotion when and where and then also in terms of body language in terms of the fight sequences before red drinks the kind of supernatural skull juice you know hallucinogen if you will that transforms on red is much more ferocious as a fighter and we thought about Bruce Lee and I showed him in an old take of Bruce Lee and Enter the Dragon where the camera goes I'm really quick and he snaps something it's like that luck you know that fantastic his big eyes and so I want us to try and get shot you know and that scene we got it where the camera came right in so I was thrilled with that but then after the skull juice panels wanted more to be like Jason from Friday the 13th to which I thought because I'm not I don't really watch slasher films I did watch the one he wanted me to see but I thought more like the ancient golem not the one in Lord of the Rings the ancient golem the Jewish golem which was a statute on to life so red red becomes more of a monolith if you will so all those little details were planned out with panels together we we formed [Music]

Channel: GQ

Views: 4,633,195

Rating: 4.9106555 out of 5

Keywords: adaptation, nic cage, nicholas cage, nicolas cage, the rock, nick cage, nicholas cage interview, nicholas cage 2018, nicholas cage career, nic cage interview, nicolas cage interview, nicolas cage 2018, nic cage face/off, nicolas cage career, nicolas cage moonstruck, nicolas cage raising arizona, nicolas cage the rock, nicolas cage national treasure, nicolas cage adaptation, nicolas cage leaving las vegas, nic cage 2018, gq, gq magazine

Id: j_WDLsLnOSM

Length: 21min 4sec (1264 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/khassius]

He looks like old Chris Evans.

[u/Scorpion13992k]

A lot of people like to bag on Nicolas Cage but I think he’s great.

[u/aaybma]

I completely forgot the Nicolas cage was Francis Ford Coppola's nephew. I've also just realised that Jason Schwartzman is also Francis's nephew and therefore Nicolas Cage's cousin. Crazy.

[u/SoFloMofo]

I love this movie, especially the scene where he thought he was going to be fired for being late again and got pissed when he realized he wasn’t. I’ve used this line at a job I hated before “You promised! You said if I was late one more time, you’d fire me. You promised!”

[u/LasDen]

It's a good movie, but I'll never understand why 10 years old me liked this movie so much...

[u/EMStrauma]

It was a good movie

[u/bolanrox]

Was cage on mushrooms at the time?

[u/RunDNA]

When you wake up seeing /r/onetruegod you assume you are in heaven.

[u/ProfessorHornet]

“Griss cannot abide that funk tonight!”