During a recent press conference for Drive Angry 3D (I guess I should see it in 3D) Nicolas Cage explained the reason why he makes the films he does. After reading this my respect for Cage shot through the roof.
First of all he admitted he did not pick films to win awards.
“As you might’ve guessed, I don’t really use it as a criteria to choose my movies,” Cage said. “My interests are a pretty acquired taste that I have. The movies that I enjoy watching personally are movies that really frustrate my wife and that you can’t really get on Amazon. So it’s an interest in Roger Corman movies and the midnight movies. I like Ray Harryhausen.”
“I like fantasy. I like horror, science fiction because I can get avant-garde with those performances in those movies. Inherently, I’m able to be abstract and “modern art” if you will because the movies are inherently out there and I can still connect with audiences. I can’t do that in down and dirty dramas. I can’t do that unless I go outside the box. Or, if I’m playing a character who’s on drugs like Bad Lieutenant, then I can get pretty out there. Otherwise I have to look at supernatural movies or science fiction movies to get more avant-garde.”
Cage then went on to discuss his own style of acting that we all know and sometimes love.
“I’d developed my own style and process and school of acting which is called Nouveau Shamanic. That’s the new style of acting and at some point I’ll have to write a book.”
There was also another reason why he took on Driver Angry.
“I was also uncomfortable with the script and I was just going through this phase in my life where I learned that if something makes you uncomfortable or fearful in any way, within reason that’s exactly what you should confront. So it was an experiment on that level that I should confront the violence in the movie because it had been a long time since I’d made a violent movie.”
Check out his reason for doing Season of the Witch.
“Initially what I was attracted to was the idea that I was going to get my eye shot out. The movie Season of the Witch, I wanted to get my eye shot out with a bow and arrow, and the producers didn’t go for it. We never really got there. Even though they said they would, it never really happened. So when Patrick Lussier said to me and just handed to me on a silver platter you’re going to get your eye shot out in a movie, I don’t know why but I just immediately said yes, I’m in because it was something that I wanted to do. It’s as simple as that.”
He also wanted to make drinking out of a human skull appealing to the audience.
“I wanted to see if there could be any way in my presentation of the skull to make the beer slosh out of the eye in such a way that my cup runneth over and have it look really inviting and appetizing and make people in the audience go, ‘Wow, I know it sounds crazy, but I’d really kind of like to drink beer from someone’s skull right now.’ That was the challenge.”
He also thinks Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance is going to be like nothing we have ever seen before.
“We got up to some stuff as Ghost Rider that the two of us designed together that I think is really going to mess with people’s minds. It’s not going to be like any other comic book movie you’ve seen. We keep stressing that Ghost Rider is the most supernatural superhero of all and that’s really going to come out in this movie.”
Nicolas Cage thank you for being still crazy.
Source: Screen Junkies
