Nicolas Cage on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" - 2/15/07

[Music] yeah we are back my first guest is an academy award-winning actor who has starred in countless hit movies tomorrow you can see him in Ghost Rider we are thrilled he's here please welcome Nicholas [Applause] [Music] Cage very nice to have you here thanks for being here yeah you know this is my first time on your show so this is uh very exciting this is exciting for us too you know we were a bunch of us we're big fans and we were talking about your your movie career you know today and all the different roles you've played and then I said for my money my favorite performance of yours it's it's hard to pick one is in Peggy Sue got married because you play uh is it Charlie it's Charlie bodell I think that's right that's and you took this acting choice in that movie that I I believe it it was a very brave acting Choice he went for this voice in that character and when I first saw the movie I thought this was gutsy cuz you chose this voice it could have maybe ended things for you right there and instead it was hilarious and great oh thank you tell what was the inspiration for that well uh I almost got fired for that one you almost got fired seriously oh I almost did and I remember my uncle had a talk the studio down and say you know this is what he's doing right it's okay but I I never worked with him again after that but you know that's what happened I chose the voice of uh I was a fan of the Gumby show when I was a child the Gumby show yeah famous show Pokey was the clation horse right on show there's Gumby yeah we always keep a Gumby and Pokey uh photo in case anyone happens to reference it well uh that's a good picture of him they were good together uh his his voice sounded like it was always a little bit accelerated so you would say things like uh next time Gumby use your own go-kart and I I I just love that sound of that voice but the scary thing is that I find that I use it more and more with every year that I get older when I get tired you don't so you just didn't you didn't just you didn't just use it for the role in pegas you got married You're Now using it in your actual life now it's actually happening to me when I least expect it like when I'm very tired so uh for example I was making a movie in Thailand I was working three days in a row and my stunt man was there and I we were working out some sort of karate move and I said uh a Dave what about that jiujitsu hole do we got to go there and of course everyone was terrified I try to do it so that I don't get um like I don't I I try to always have a good attitude I don't like to lose my tamper or raise my voice but you know sometimes in the morning when I'm a little bit cranky and tired it's like uh hi Alice uh you know I don't know what coffee to make this morning I really don't know it's almost like you can be that other person you know a little bit and take a break I understand it well yeah well it's sort of a a a release yeah yeah well it's so hilarious in the movie that and this this is just for Real movie Buffs there's a scene where you're actually eating Rice Krispies Treats you're going like and and it was I just I remembered seeing in the theater and just dying laughing it was so funny trying not to throw up no knock to Rice Krispies Treats they're fantastic oh yeah I do like those yeah they're very good they may be a sponsor I'll find out later they're fantastic with the marshmallows and they're crispy they're so crunchy now you've gone too far um you know it's funny also you I think have covered more ground than most movie actors drama comedy action and I'm curious who's the it seems like you're able to almost shape shift uh more than than most actors it's that's a compliment but who's the who's the real Nick Cage well thank you it's interesting you mentioned that I uh if you follow that Chinese animality like the year like this is the year of the pig I once thought that I was born in the year of the dragon cuz it was 64 but and I found out that the Chinese New Year actually begins in February so I was born in the year of the bunny and I had this incredible identity crisis that I was no longer a dragon I was a bunny after I had a dragon tattooed on my back and I had a dragon minute you thought you were born in the year of the dragon so you have a a dragon tattooed on your back I went for it I was yeah I'm going to embrace this cuz it was a really cool sign to have and then they said no you're a bunny so I that was a very that was a very sad period in my life I I didn't know who I was anymore could you add ears to the dragon or I tried to think of that some sort of concoction between the two but then my mother-in-law is Korean and she said to me this year though in fact you are born in the year of the dragon because in Korea we celebrate January as the beginning of the year and also in Japan so now I'm back and I'm feeling very good about my new scales I'm back I'm I'm accepting my dragon Hood once again so you're used to having sort of a shattered personality almost right so maybe that went into the acting sometimes you're Dragon sometimes you're a bunny yeah that'll be taken out of context uh we're going to take a break we have so much to talk about more with Nicholas Cage in just a second stick [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] around we are back I'm sitting here with Nicholas Cage you actually uh obviously you were interested in being an actor at an early age was was there a time when you realized when you were very young okay acting this is this is something I have a facility for well there there is a a memory of mine that comes back to me now where I was uh uh I was on a bus I was in fourth grade and I was picked on by the the the bullies on the bus cuz my mother used to pack a Twinkie in my lunch sack and she they would always want to take it and I didn't want them stealing the Twinkie so uh I remember one day for some reason I I put on my older brother's cowboy boots and I put these sunglasses on and I dressed in these tight jeans and I had all this Swagger and attitude and I went on the bus and I said that I was Roy Wilkinson I was Nikki's cousin and I'm going to beat you up if you pick on him anymore and then and they they stopped picking on me so I thought that was like my first time that I could actually maybe play a part now I don't know if they really believed it but it was just enough that they might have been afraid of you a little bit it was a weird thing for for me to do but it yeah that might be my first acting experience and there was another bully named Jonathan Foster Jonathan Foster well I guess he could call in at some point now I mean now I I mention his name but he would uh he's probably like you know in in prison now he was yeah he he would go around the neighborhood on his Schwin bike and he would torment my brothers and there I was I was seven years old and I would pretend that I was the Incredible Hulk and I ripped my shirt off in my jeans and would scream at him and he ran away on the bike and he he never came back that was another that was another little weird you literally acted like the Hulk like you and then he disappeared yeah I was said again he was very afraid I heard you did a a Hulk thing on years ago we had me transform into the Hulk and the main joke was that I turned green but still had the same sunken chest Asar You Know Who I Really uh I I I uh who I really love is cloppy the horse oh yeah we have a we have a horse on the show cloppy who become suicidal yeah we'll have to we'll have to bring him out here for you something next time you come we'll bring out cloppy now let's talk about I love clappy I always hear a different thing from people but I haven't heard clappy in a while Po and I see I see what you're into uh let me ask you about uh now Ghost Rider this is the new film and it's interesting because this is your first you've made so many films this is the first time you get to play a a superhero which I I think is a it's a little ironic because you were I understand a huge fan of comic books I would think that would be your lifetime dream to play a superhero well yeah at one time I was going to play Superman and that was with Tim Burton but I think we had choices that might have not been too comfortable for the studio because we wanted the Gumby voice again maybe that something else you know I love you Lois good night Lois um but uh this was the right choice for me Ghost Rider he's so cool because he well he's not in uh tights he doesn't have a cape he's got a flaming skull for a head he's flaming skull is hard to beat it's hard to top and also he has this uh he has a great superpower uh he has the pen and stare and that's where he looks at you and he turns everything you ever did wrong back on you he's like Karma personified it's pretty cool stuff for super he brings up your sort of your worst uh your worst nightmare from your past everything you ever did wrong he turns it right back at you right and if that's not bad enough then he can beat you with a bicycle chain well he has that chain and he throw fire at you yeah yeah so it must have been it must be fun to be this character it was because that character when I was a boy I loved him because I couldn't understand how something so scary could also be so good right and uh it's like faou and evil coneval and Beauty in the Beast and a western and a biker movie and a like a horror film like a great big werewolf movie all thrown into one and those are all things I I find fun right well we have a clip here from Ghost Rider uh what do we need to to yeah this is like this is like a recreation of Big Bad Evil Canal jum at the uh Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in the 70s and we wanted to try to bring that back and I I go through that crash and survive okay let's take a look at this clip from Ghost [Music] Rider [Applause] [Music] heck was the back yeah but fine you said that was a a that looks extremely painful you know uh if if you look at the the uh the old footage of evil doing that jump at sees his pal he almost broke every bone in his body on right it's act Recreation of that we were trying to match that what he actually went through yeah it's a dangerous time jumping 20 uh trucks is a dangerous time to be having a flashback in your mind oh yeah that's where the com comes in oh yeah buy milk whoa uh Ghost Rider uh opens tomorrow very cool having you on the show thanks for doing it yeah very nice to have you Nicholas Cage Natalie Morales from today show coming up we'll take a break we'll be right back

Channel: Inflatable Conan

Views: 197,162

Keywords: Conan, O'Brien

Id: 3PjF_ZUS_dQ

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2015