Nicolas Cage used to be that dude. In fact, during one four-movie stretch – Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, Face/Off and Con Air- in the mid '90s, Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew could do no wrong. When the decade switched over though, it almost seemed as if something switched off in Cage- like his ability to pick good scripts.
With movies like Matchstick Men, The Weather Man and The Wicker Man, man, it was starting to get hard to watch Cage at the cineplex. Yeah, there have been some decent moments like the two National Treasures, Adaptation and World Trade Center in between, but no real string of consistent winners. Knowing, Cage’s latest big-budget thriller, isn’t great either yet it shows glimmers of that smooth, stoic cat we grew to love a decade ago.
HipHopDX recently caught up with the tireless actor – Cage has six other movies slated for release by the end of 2010 - to get his thoughts on playing an action hero, being a father and bringing The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to life.
HipHopDX: Knowing and Next are two movies you’ve done where the future is involved. Do you think we have a pre-determined future?
Nicholas Cage: At risk of impinging on your own personal opinions, or your own relationship with the movie, I would just offer that I’m not a chaos theorist.
DX: How did your relationship with your own son resonate with your character in Knowing?
Nicholas Cage: Well, I dedicate the movie to my first son because that’s what the relationship was really- it was me and him. This script came to me at the right time. I had the life experiences and the emotional resources to play John Koestler. Indeed, some of the lines in the scenes came out of direct memories of my time with Weston. I’ve been looking for ways to express feelings for a long time, and having been a single father out in California, I know that there is a gender bias depending on which lawyer or which psychologist or family therapist that you talk to. It's like there's a full moon out if a father wants to see his son. That's just not true; just because you're a man doesn't mean that you can't raise your kid. I think that families should stay together, but if you are a single father, don't give up no matter what they say. So I wanted to have a chance to express that, to show that archetype in a movie, that you can have a devoted, positive relationship between that family, a father and a son as well.
DX: Have your children expressed any interest in acting?
Nicholas Cage: My oldest son, right now, he’s very immersed in his music. But there may be a time when he chooses to go into the cinema. My youngest son is three and a half.
DX: What role is Hollywood playing in these troubling economic times?
Nicholas Cage: More than ever, movies reveal themselves as healing, as helpful, as encouraging as escapist. Anything that makes someone get through their day at these times [is good]. It’s the best form of entertainment and it’s still arguably the most inexpensive form of entertainment. I always say to myself, if I can make a movie that makes a kid smile or gives him so hope or something he can be excited about then I’m applying myself in the best way I can. I don’t think that just goes for kids; I think that goes for adults and families as well. There is a need to go to movies just to get your mind off of the problems that are happening in our daily lives and the stresses between countries, the economy, global warming, all those things that are on their minds. But at the same time, I think movies can help guide us through those experiences because, I think, all of us try to grapple with, redefine, come to terms with, express what’s happening now. You can be entertained but you can also be stimulated to think about things. Knowing is one of those movies where you’re going to get the spectacle, you’re going to have the entertainment in the grand science-fiction tradition, but also it will help stimulate some discussion to help you sort out on your own where you might choose to go in terms of your own needs. I say that without preaching or anything like that. That’s up to you what you get from the movie.
DX: What is it about Science Fiction that particularly appeals to you?
Nicholas Cage: Good Science Fiction is intelligent. It asks big questions that are on people’s minds. It’s not impossible. It has some sort of root in the abstract. Automatically, you’re getting closer to more potentially divine sources of interest because it’s abstract. It’s one of the only ways a film actor can express himself in the abstract and [unintelligible] still go along for the ride. They don’t contend it. They accept that they’re going to go places that are a bit more of the imaginary, a bit more out there. And that’s more and more where I like to dance. The other thing is that I get really tired of movies where I had to shoot people. I got to thinking about the power of films. What is that power? The power is, in fact, that it really can change people’s mind. I had that experience with China syndrome. It made me aware. So, I thought, “If it is this powerful, the power to change people’s minds, then perhaps I should be a little more responsible with that power.” That’s not to say I don’t believe in the freedom of speech; I do. It’s just that at this point in my life, my interests, I would rather entertain you with the spectacle and with the imagination as opposed to servicing your bloodlust appetites… But that’s not to say that I may not find myself in that situation again. There are ways of doing it, even by showing it, where it can be ironic and just not gratuitous in the sense where I want you to get off by watching someone’s head explode.
DX: What's on your plate for the future as one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood?
Nicholas Cage: Well, I have a movie called Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans coming out. Werner Herzog directed that. I have a movie called Season of the Witch coming out that Dominic Sena directed and now this week I'll be doing, commencing photography on Sorcerer's Apprentice. Plus, I have two animated features coming out which hopefully make the kids smile.
DX: Following up on Sorcerer's Apprentice, what did Fantasia mean to you growing up?
Nicholas Cage: Wonder, enchantment, awe. It was my first real introduction into classical music and it was married to these beautiful, life-like animated sequences with dinosaurs and ogres and gargoyles. It was just totally inspiring to me. So it's kind of a big moment for me to be able to play that part.
DX: Doing The Sorcerer's Apprentice as a live action film, what's the take on the story itself and on the sorcerer?
Nicholas Cage: Well, I haven't even started filming yet, but I would like to say that the take is that it's going to entertain you. The sorcerer is good, but there is going to be moments where he's a little mysterious and just a little, perhaps, scary to look at. There's going to be a lot of fantasy and there's going to be some amazing FX. I'm working with Jay Baruchel, who I think is fantastic.
DX: He's the apprentice?
Nicholas Cage: He is, yeah. We're going to have some laughs. I can already feel it.
DX: The National Treasure films were some of your most successful. Are you looking forward to a third one and do you have any idea where the franchise might go?
Nicholas Cage: Yeah, I'm hopeful. Those movies make a lot of people happy. I don't know yet where it will go or what the story will be because the auspices are all right here right now working on The Sorcerer's Apprentice. There was some talk about it maybe going into the south.
DX: Do you think you'll make it later this year?
Nicholas Cage: I really don't know. I wish that I did, but I haven't got a clue. That sounds oddly Ben Gates.
With movies like Matchstick Men, The Weather Man and The Wicker Man, man, it was starting to get hard to watch Cage at the cineplex. Yeah, there have been some decent moments like the two National Treasures, Adaptation and World Trade Center in between, but no real string of consistent winners. Knowing, Cage’s latest big-budget thriller, isn’t great either yet it shows glimmers of that smooth, stoic cat we grew to love a decade ago.
HipHopDX recently caught up with the tireless actor – Cage has six other movies slated for release by the end of 2010 - to get his thoughts on playing an action hero, being a father and bringing The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to life.
HipHopDX: Knowing and Next are two movies you’ve done where the future is involved. Do you think we have a pre-determined future?
Nicholas Cage: At risk of impinging on your own personal opinions, or your own relationship with the movie, I would just offer that I’m not a chaos theorist.
DX: How did your relationship with your own son resonate with your character in Knowing?
Nicholas Cage: Well, I dedicate the movie to my first son because that’s what the relationship was really- it was me and him. This script came to me at the right time. I had the life experiences and the emotional resources to play John Koestler. Indeed, some of the lines in the scenes came out of direct memories of my time with Weston. I’ve been looking for ways to express feelings for a long time, and having been a single father out in California, I know that there is a gender bias depending on which lawyer or which psychologist or family therapist that you talk to. It's like there's a full moon out if a father wants to see his son. That's just not true; just because you're a man doesn't mean that you can't raise your kid. I think that families should stay together, but if you are a single father, don't give up no matter what they say. So I wanted to have a chance to express that, to show that archetype in a movie, that you can have a devoted, positive relationship between that family, a father and a son as well.
DX: Have your children expressed any interest in acting?
Nicholas Cage: My oldest son, right now, he’s very immersed in his music. But there may be a time when he chooses to go into the cinema. My youngest son is three and a half.
DX: What role is Hollywood playing in these troubling economic times?
Nicholas Cage: More than ever, movies reveal themselves as healing, as helpful, as encouraging as escapist. Anything that makes someone get through their day at these times [is good]. It’s the best form of entertainment and it’s still arguably the most inexpensive form of entertainment. I always say to myself, if I can make a movie that makes a kid smile or gives him so hope or something he can be excited about then I’m applying myself in the best way I can. I don’t think that just goes for kids; I think that goes for adults and families as well. There is a need to go to movies just to get your mind off of the problems that are happening in our daily lives and the stresses between countries, the economy, global warming, all those things that are on their minds. But at the same time, I think movies can help guide us through those experiences because, I think, all of us try to grapple with, redefine, come to terms with, express what’s happening now. You can be entertained but you can also be stimulated to think about things. Knowing is one of those movies where you’re going to get the spectacle, you’re going to have the entertainment in the grand science-fiction tradition, but also it will help stimulate some discussion to help you sort out on your own where you might choose to go in terms of your own needs. I say that without preaching or anything like that. That’s up to you what you get from the movie.
DX: What is it about Science Fiction that particularly appeals to you?
Nicholas Cage: Good Science Fiction is intelligent. It asks big questions that are on people’s minds. It’s not impossible. It has some sort of root in the abstract. Automatically, you’re getting closer to more potentially divine sources of interest because it’s abstract. It’s one of the only ways a film actor can express himself in the abstract and [unintelligible] still go along for the ride. They don’t contend it. They accept that they’re going to go places that are a bit more of the imaginary, a bit more out there. And that’s more and more where I like to dance. The other thing is that I get really tired of movies where I had to shoot people. I got to thinking about the power of films. What is that power? The power is, in fact, that it really can change people’s mind. I had that experience with China syndrome. It made me aware. So, I thought, “If it is this powerful, the power to change people’s minds, then perhaps I should be a little more responsible with that power.” That’s not to say I don’t believe in the freedom of speech; I do. It’s just that at this point in my life, my interests, I would rather entertain you with the spectacle and with the imagination as opposed to servicing your bloodlust appetites… But that’s not to say that I may not find myself in that situation again. There are ways of doing it, even by showing it, where it can be ironic and just not gratuitous in the sense where I want you to get off by watching someone’s head explode.
DX: What's on your plate for the future as one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood?
Nicholas Cage: Well, I have a movie called Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans coming out. Werner Herzog directed that. I have a movie called Season of the Witch coming out that Dominic Sena directed and now this week I'll be doing, commencing photography on Sorcerer's Apprentice. Plus, I have two animated features coming out which hopefully make the kids smile.
DX: Following up on Sorcerer's Apprentice, what did Fantasia mean to you growing up?
Nicholas Cage: Wonder, enchantment, awe. It was my first real introduction into classical music and it was married to these beautiful, life-like animated sequences with dinosaurs and ogres and gargoyles. It was just totally inspiring to me. So it's kind of a big moment for me to be able to play that part.
DX: Doing The Sorcerer's Apprentice as a live action film, what's the take on the story itself and on the sorcerer?
Nicholas Cage: Well, I haven't even started filming yet, but I would like to say that the take is that it's going to entertain you. The sorcerer is good, but there is going to be moments where he's a little mysterious and just a little, perhaps, scary to look at. There's going to be a lot of fantasy and there's going to be some amazing FX. I'm working with Jay Baruchel, who I think is fantastic.
DX: He's the apprentice?
Nicholas Cage: He is, yeah. We're going to have some laughs. I can already feel it.
DX: The National Treasure films were some of your most successful. Are you looking forward to a third one and do you have any idea where the franchise might go?
Nicholas Cage: Yeah, I'm hopeful. Those movies make a lot of people happy. I don't know yet where it will go or what the story will be because the auspices are all right here right now working on The Sorcerer's Apprentice. There was some talk about it maybe going into the south.
DX: Do you think you'll make it later this year?
Nicholas Cage: I really don't know. I wish that I did, but I haven't got a clue. That sounds oddly Ben Gates.
