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TOPIC: 7 Questions with Nicolas Cage

Loew

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Posts: 2216

Date: 2:22 AM, 06/06/07

7 Questions with Nicolas Cage	Permalink

Q-1:What appealed to you about this particular role in Next? When I first read it, it was very different than what it is now. I reread after the powers that be worked on it for about six months. But the initial interest was that I had not done a film that had science-fiction undertones to it before. I'm always of the mind to try to explore a little bit of everything -- being an eclectic type of person. So that was intriguing to me. It seemed like a new frontier for me. I was a fan of Philip K. Dick. I like his pedigree and the notion of trying to make real a character who can see two minutes into the future. Making that real for the audience seemed very exciting to me. Q-2:Why only two minutes? Well, I'm not the sort of fellow who wants to broadcast my own contributions, but as I said when I read the script there were a lot of changes made and it occurred to me I needed to do something to revitalize the character. Specifically, I've been thinking a lot about the notion that there are people who may or may not have powers and what would you do if you were born with powers that could possibly be very terrifying and uncomfortable for others around you. For example, seeing your future. So it occurred to me, how could I play that part? And what could I do with that part that would seem real and also protect the character from being labeled a freak? So I thought, well, he could hide in plain sight. He could be a magician in Vegas and these people -- sometimes you see them and you go, "How do they do that?" So my thinking was, have him use the magic act as a disguise for the reality, which is that he really does have powers. So that was the main thrust of the change that I made and I'm very excited about it. I think it's working really well and I'm blessed to work with Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel. They're both doing a great job. I have to admit it was a bit of an adjustment for everybody. I just went to screen-test in a tux with a ruffle shirt so I could play a magician. So it was like, "Whoa, what are you doing? What is this? I'm not sure if I want to be in this movie." Nicolas Cage bought a 2-million-Euro Bavarian castle called Schloss Neidstein. The 500-year-old castle sits on a hill In Etzelwang, Germany. It boasts 28 rooms, including 10 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. Q-3: How much of Nic Cage is in this character? I try to put a little in every role. Is it by some definition me or some expression of me? Maybe now as I'm approaching my 25th year in the business, I think I've relaxed into trying to bring as much of my experience into each part so that it rings true. Even when I'm doing material where I'm not as "singer-songwriter" about it -- I'm doing other people's dialogue -- I try to find a way to fill those words intrepidly that will have some sense of my own life experience. Q-4:Can you talk about what you see as the enduring appeal to Philip K. Dick stories? He's edgy and he's uncompromisable and his life is interesting from what I've read about it. This is a man who allegedly heard the TV going when the TV wasn't plugged in. Then his wife, after he passed on said, "Yeah, I heard it too." That's pretty powerful stuff, however you want to look at it. There's no doubt he's inspired and he has a unique voice in his writing, and it translates well. Q-5:What's the most challenging aspect of this film? I don't think that I would ever want to walk through anything, but I do think there is something to making things appear easier and in a sense anything forced on film is death. You have to try and find a way to make things effortless. But, the challenge here again is you can't really walk through a movie when you're playing a guy who can see two minutes into the future. It's a whole new kind of geography for a personality type and it really is theater of the imagination. I have to imagine what that would be like. What that would entail for a character. How that would infringe on his life and that's why the magic act came in. It also occurred to me that Cris Johnson would be somebody who really would be interested in unusual and natural phenomenon because he is an unusual and natural phenomenon. So he would have an interest in natural history. He would have an interest in bizarre incidents. He would have an interest in the supernatural, science itself. Anything that can help explain his condition. Parasitological or, as I said, natural history. Even religion. He's also spouting out little excerpts of smatterings and things he's learned. I'm sort of bombarding Jessica Biel with all these tidbits of wisdom that he would know. Q-6:Are you contractually obligated for sequels for Ghost Rider? No. I'm not contractually obligated to sequels on anything. I'll never say never, but I am happy that I haven't made any sequels to this point. If I do a sequel, I'm going to have to know for sure that the script is better than the original. So I'm going to be very careful about that because I'm not eager to repeat myself. Nicolas Cage has a tattoo of a monitor lizard with a top hat on his upper back. Q-7:Any desire to direct again? Absolutely. I'm happy with the way my directorial debut [Sonny (2002)] has been received over time. At first, because of the subject matter being pretty taboo, I don't think people understood and that's OK. It's interesting. I just talked to James Franco this morning. We're both kind of happy with the different responses we've received because of its life on cable television and DVD, so I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to do something together again?" So I'm actively looking for something to work with James on. __________________

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