During his decades on screen, Cage played many memorable roles in over 100 films, including Cameron Poe in Air conditioningStanley Goodspeed in The rockand Castor Troy in Front/Off.
But now it’s time for a face-to-face of a different kind – one with himself.
For Cage, playing another character is much easier than playing himself.
“If you’re playing another character with someone else’s name, you can hide behind that character and it’s not all up to you and hopefully not potentially embarrassing your family,” he said. -he declares.
“But when you play Nic Cage, there are a lot of other Cages running around and I don’t want to humiliate them any more than I want to humiliate myself.”
For the record, there is no humiliation in sight. Turns out a movie with Cage playing a fictionalized version of himself is exactly what we all need right now – the movie is quietly sitting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
But seriously, how crazy was that idea?
“It would be the craziest concept, as you so aptly put it, for a movie. I think it was really intimidating and empowering,” Cage said.
“There wasn’t a muscle in my body that told me I should play a character named Nic Cage in a movie. It just freaked me out. I said no about four times.”
Then little-known writer and director Tom Gormican sat down and wrote a letter to his hero.
“It was a good letter, a smart letter, it was sensitive. I knew he was a real movie buff and he also wanted to make a movie about people, not cartoons,” Cage said.
In The unbearable weight of massive talentCage plays a version of himself, a movie star going through tougher times who agrees – for $1 million – to attend the birthday party of a Spanish superfan named Javi.
But Javi is being hunted down by the CIA and suddenly Cage’s many roles are happening in real life. Well, a bit of real life.
It’s literally the role Cage was born to play – and he did it for his fans.
“I’ve been lucky to have a loyal group of fans or moviegoers who have stuck with me, because I think they know we’re going to have that relationship like I would have when I watched my heroes like Marlon Brando. “, he mentioned.
“I would say, ‘I know you, I know how you feel,’ because he was sincere and I feel like with this movie, we have it again.”
The unbearable wait for The unbearable weight of massive talent is almost done – the film hits theaters next week.
