Cage’s conversation draws from many sources. Cage spoke out about Picasso, Elia Kazan and Timothee Chalamet in a wide-ranging interview. This was just before “The Unbearable weight of Massive Talent” was released. Cage’s fascination with intense, sometimes grotesque performance, such as “The Brutality Of Fact,” a book of interviews with Bacon helped him to define naturalism rather than naturalism.
Cage says, “And I’ve kinda approached my public perception as well as how I design my film work as an actor with this concept in mind — not to be afraid of being ugly in behavior or in appearance.” Cage says, “To create a type of taste that you have yet to discover.”
Cage, a 58-year old actor who has appeared in more than 100 movies, is an Oscar-winner (“Leaving Las Vegas”) and an action star (“Con Air”) as well as the source of many Internet memes for his most dramatic moments in films such “Face/Off.” He has been a long-standing favorite of moviegoers. Cage is “an amateur surrealist,” which is how he describes himself. Despite being a star in Hollywood, he has become one of the most beloved stars. Tom Gormican, director of “Unbearable weight,” says that “the sight of Cage’s face kind of makes people happy.”
For Cage, however, “The Unbearable weight of Massive Talent,” which opens Friday in theaters, is a different experience. Cage is himself in the film. Cage plays himself as a fun-house mirror of himself, which interacts with a younger, more mature version of himself. Cage is the movie’s biggest homage. The actor manages to simultaneously satirize his perceptions and act out these personas with sincere humor.
Cage says, “The through line that has always been there for me is: No matter whatever I designed, and it hasn’t been a design, whether it’s absurd — and it often ridiculous — or sublime, it must be informed with genuine emotion content.”
“No matter how wide or complex it may sound, it felt real.
What does Cage consider to be outrageous? This is the actor that, imitating Nosferatu’s Kiss, performed one of the most bizarre recitals of the alphabet I’ve ever heard. He likes to answer: “Well, show it where the top is and if it’s over it, I’ll tell ya.”
Cage, whose mother Joy Coppola was a choreographer and dancer, says that “I grew in a home where my mom would do things that you would think were over-the-top.” Francis’ brother, August Coppola was his father and a professor of literature. “But what’s the top?” If you are trying to design something, you will think about various styles, such as impressionism or surrealism. Then you can start to see it differently. It won’t be for everyone and it probably won’t sell tickets. That’s okay.
He adds, “Movies can be a business. It was not without risk that I chose this path. But it was important to my family.” “I stuck with it, and sure, I got many rotten tomatoes thrown at my face. It was something I expected, but I knew it was coming so I wasn’t surprised.”
Cage’s uniqueness is that many of his experiments have sold tickets. There are many of them. Cage’s films have grossed nearly $5 billion worldwide. It’s been quite some time since Cage was in the center of a major studio movie.
Lionsgate’s “The Unbearable weight of Massive Talent,” which was premiered at South by Southwest to positive reviews, gives him the opportunity to explore the idea of a comeback. He’s determined to get better roles than the $1 million birthday party he was offered. He was able to wrestle with his own mythology, often comically and sometimes physically.
Gormican recalls that he would approach me and say (lower voice) “Tom, there’s this guy who wears leather jackets and rings and he lives in Las Vegas, and he would never ever say that line.” “And I would say, “Oh, you mean me.” He would then reply, “Yes.” And I would respond, “Well, it’s definitely not you.” It’s a character based upon you.’ He would say, ‘Yes, but he has mine.’ I was like, “Come on man, just say that line.”
Gormican laughs, “We’d have conversations about who understands Nick Cage better.”
Cage initially rejected Gormican several times before Cage wrote a touching letter that finally convinced him to make the film. Cage has always kept his performances in quotation marks, even when he is at his wildest. Cage is known for his deep commitment to even the most unhinged characters. (Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant Port of New Orleans” is a good example. Cage was initially concerned that Gormican’s film might be a self-mocking parody. However, Cage takes it in unexpected directions.
Cage says, “I won’t name names but there were actors who came out of the gate that I felt were sincere, deeply emotional and honest at the beginning but then became too dependent on their own supply.” “They began to wink at the audience, and it lost the emotional connection,” Cage said. When you decide to be raw and emotional, it’s a slippery slope.
In the film, Cage does achieve some extraordinary heights. Gormican was humbled to hear Cage tell Gormican, “That was the Full Cage.” The Full Cage was yours. Another scene shows the Cages having sex, and the younger exclaims “Nick Cage smooches great!”
Cage’s exotic tastes, such as having to return a stolen dinosaur skull from Mongolia that he had purchased, have added to his legend. He insists that he lives a normal life so that his work can be extreme. , his self-promotion on “Wogan”, was itself an act.
Cage married Riko Shibata last year, his fifth wife. They are currently expecting their first child. Cage has two adult sons. One of the issues in “Unbearable Weight” is that he be not shown as an absentee dad — a fiction Cage would not allow. Cage, who has been unusually reflective during the press tour, is excited to return to his desert home in Las Vegas. Cage could use a break from Nick Cage.
The actor’s final chapter is “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”. After making 30 video-on demand films over the past decade to pay the IRS and his creditors, he’s now out of debt. He doesn’t apologize for the films. He says they made him a better actor.
“I was practicing. I was able to use my imagination and keep my mind open. Cage says that it was a better way to relieve my financial crisis than doing a Super Bowl commercial. “That was also an important point for me. I’m not a seller, I’m an actor.”
Cage can feel the support of mainstream audiences once more. Cage’s performance last year in “Pig” as a grizzled truffle hunter, received some of the best reviews in many years. Cage’s performance was more naturalistic than usual, and it served as a reminder of the extent to which he can go. Cage, who started his career at age 15, reminds us that he has been doing this for a long time. Cage believes that his path started with an audacious performance.
According to actor Cage, his father had a huge influence on him. He introduced him to early films, books and paintings. He could also cut his son with words.
Cage says, “And I just wasn’t going to accept it.” I knew he was thinking more about me than he admitted. I fooled him once, and I did something I have never done again. I lied. I lied. He said, “Wow Nicky, that’s amazing.” And then I received the affirmation I needed to believe that I could do it. This was the moment a lie saved my life.
