Page 14 - aruba-today-20220422

a14 people & arts
Friday 22 april 2022
Nicolas Cage faces off with a new foe: Himself

By JAKE COYLE own supply,” Cage says.
AP Film Writer “They started winking at
NEW YORK (AP) — “Me- the audience and, in my
tropolis.” Bruce Lee. Woody opinion, it lost the emotion-
Woodpecker. A pet cobra. al connection. It’s a slip-
All of these things have pery slope when you make
been inspirations behind the decision that you want
Nicolas Cage performanc- to be emotional and raw.”
es — sometimes private The actor does reach some
homages that the actor gonzo heights in the film.
has used like blueprints to After one scene, Gormi-
build some of his most ex- can was honored to hear
aggerated, erratic and af- Cage say: “That was the
fecting characters. Full Cage. You got the Full
A conversation with Cage, Cage.” Another scene fea-
likewise, pulls from a wide tures the two Cages mak-
gamut of sources. In a re- ing out, after which the
cent and typically wide- younger exclaims, “Nick
ranging interview ahead of Cage smooches good!”
the release of “The Unbear- Cage’s own exotic tastes
able Weight of Massive Tal- — he once had to return a
ent,” Cage touched on Pi- dinosaur skull he purchased
casso, Elia Kazan, Timothée that had been stolen from
Chalamet and Francis Ba- Mongolia — have contrib-
con. A book of interviews uted to his legend. But he
with Bacon, “The Brutal- Nicolas Cage poses for a portrait to promote “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” in New insists that he is normal in
ity of Fact,” for instance, York on April 9, 2022. Associated Press his life so that he can be
helped Cage define his extreme in his work — and
attraction to intense, even day, represents something at it in a different way. It’s jackets and he lives in Las that some of his self-pro-
grotesque performance — different. In it, Cage plays not going to be for every- Vegas and he would nev- motion, like an infamous-
“that which is not obviously himself. Or, rather, he plays body and it’s not neces- er say that line,’” recalls ly nutty appearance on
beautiful,” he says — rather a fun-house mirror version sarily going to sell tickets. Gormican. “And I would “Wogan,” was itself an act.
than naturalism. of himself that sometimes But that’s OK.” “Movies are go, ‘Oh, you mean you.’ Cage last year married Riko
“And I’ve kind of ap- interacts with a young- a business and it was not He’d say, ‘Yes.’ And I’d Shibata, his fifth wife, and
proached my public per- er version of himself. The without peril that I took this be like, ‘Well, it’s not you. they are expecting a child.
ception, as well as the way movie is one big homage path, but it was important It’s a character based on (Cage also has two grown
I design my film work, as an to Cage in which the ac- to me,” he adds. “I stuck you.’ And he’d go, ‘But he sons; a sticking point in “Un-
actor with that concept tor somehow manages to by it and, sure, I got plenty has my name.’ I was like, bearable Weight” was that
in mind -- to not be afraid both satirize perceptions of of rotten tomatoes thrown ‘Come on, man, just say he not be shown as an ab-
to be ugly in behavior or himself and act out those in my face. But I knew that the line.’” sentee father — one fiction
even in appearance,” says personas sincerely. was going to happen so it “We’d have discussions Cage wouldn’t permit.) Af-
Cage. “To create a kind of “No matter how broad or wasn’t anything I didn’t ex- about who understood ter an unusually introspec-
taste that you have to dis- what some folk like to call pect.” Nick Cage more,” adds tive press tour for the film,
cover.” over the top, it had genu- But what’s unusual about Gormican, laughing. Cage is looking forward to
With more than 100 films, ine feeling.” Cage is that many of those Gormican was initially returning to the desert out-
the 58-year-old Cage — But what to Cage consti- experiments HAVE sold tick- turned down several times side Las Vegas, where he
an Oscar-winner (“Leav- tutes over the top? This is ets. A lot of them. Cage’s by Cage before a heartfelt lives. He could use a break
ing Las Vegas”), an action the actor who, channeling films account for nearly letter finally convinced the from “Nick Cage.”
star (“Con Air”) and the Nosferatu in “Vampire’s $5 billion in worldwide actor to make the film. The But “The Unbearable
source of countless Inter- Kiss,” gave one of the most box office. Still, it’s been a issue was that Cage, even Weight of Massive Talent”
net memes for his most bonkers recitals of the al- while since he was front- at his most outlandish, has wraps a chapter for the
theatrical moments in films phabet ever heard. He’s and-center in a major stu- never put quotation marks actor. He’s finally out of
like “Face/Off” — has long fond of answering: “Well, dio film. “The Unbearable around his performances. the red after making some
been one of the most par- show me where the top is Weight of Massive Talent,” He tends to invest fully in 30 video-on-demand films
ticular tastes in movies. Yet and I’ll tell you if I’m over it.” which Lionsgate premiered even the most unhinged over the last decade to pay
by being “an amateur sur- “I grew up in a house where at South by Southwest to characters. (Werner Her- off the IRS and his creditors.
realist,” as he refers to him- my mom would do things warm reviews, allows him zog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port He makes no apologies for
self, Cage has emerged that if you put it in a mov- to play around with the of New Orleans” comes to those films. They made him
— even after resorting to ie, you would say that was notion of a comeback. In mind.) Cage initially feared a better actor, he says.
a string of VOD releases to over the top,” says Cage, the film, he’s desperate to Gormican’s film would be “I was practicing. I man-
pay off back taxes and get whose mother, Joy Cop- score better parts than the self-mocking parody, and aged to keep my access to
himself out of debt — as pola, was a dancer and birthday party he’s been while it has those elements, my imagination at my fin-
one of Hollywood’s most choreographer. His father, offered $1 million to attend. Cage steers it in more un- gertips. It was a much bet-
widely loved stars. As “Un- August Coppola, brother The movie was an oppor- predictable directions. ter way for me to get this
bearable Weight” direc- of Francis, was a professor tunity to wrestle — usually “Without mentioning financial crisis off my back
tor Tom Gormican says, of literature. “But what is comically, sometimes phys- names, there were some than doing something like
“the sight of his face sort of the top? When you want ically — with his own exag- actors that came out of the a Super Bowl commercial
makes people happy.” to design something and gerated mythology. gate that I thought were re- — and believe me they of-
But for even the mercu- you think about different “He would come up to me ally sincere and profoundly fered,” says Cage. “That
rial Cage, “The Unbearable styles — naturalism, impres- and say, (lowers voice) emotional and honest in was also a point for me,
Weight of Massive Talent,” sionism, surrealism, abstract ‘Tom, there’s a guy who the beginning and then that I’m not a salesman, I’m
which opens in theaters Fri- — then you start to look wears rings and leather became too high on their an actor.”q