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There aren’t many actors who transcend the roles they play in quite the unique way as Nicolas Cage. Born Nicolas Coppola (his uncle is Francis Ford), Cage rebranded to avoid nepotism. He started acting because he wanted to be like James Dean.
Cage’s early roles include 1982 coming-of-age movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High and 1983 romantic comedy Valley Girl. He then went on to period drama Racing With the Moon with Sean Penn, and musical crime drama The Cotton Club and Peggy Sue Got Married, both directed by Uncle Francis. By the time he’d done the Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona in 1987, and won the best actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995, he had entered the big league.
And what a career it has been. It’s been slightly off the wall, yes, but that’s what Cage does best. No doubt you’ll have a favourite Cage moment. It might be swapping faces with John Travolta in Face/Off (and, apparently, the rest of his body; although Cage and Travolta do a fine impression of each other). Or breaking into Alcatraz in The Rock (surely prison doors lock from the outside, so why doesn’t he just use a key?) If you prefer your Cage teamed with fast cars and Angelina Jolie, you’ll like Gone in 60 Seconds. If you favour Cage plus motorbikes and Eva Mendes, try Ghost Rider. For prisoners on planes with terrible mullet haircuts: Con Air.
Then there’s the Indiana Jones Cage in the National Treasure films, and comic book superhero dad Cage in Kick-Ass 1 and 2. For dramatic Cage, try Matchstick Men where he plays a con artist.
For Fantasy Cage, try City of Angels, where he plays an angel. If you prefer to only peek at him from behind a cushion, horror-style, check out The Wicker Man or 2018’s Mandy.
Cage hasn’t slowed on his output. If anything, his films in the 2020s have been even weirder and more wonderful. He is “unusually restrained” as a truffle forager in 2021’s Pig. He plays Dracula in the “truly resplendent” 2023 film Renfield. We’ve even had Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage in the “endearing” 2022 film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. For his portrayal of a professor who, for no apparent reason, starts appearing in everyone’s dreams in the 2023 movie Dream Scenario Cage received his fifth Golden Globe nomination. Next he stars as Surfer Cage in psychological thriller The Surfer out this May – and the reason we are here.
So, what to ask the great man? How about the Cage that never was? Cage nearly played Superman in an aborted 90s Tim Burton reboot, and was almost cast over Johnny Depp by Burton as Willy Wonka in 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The hardest to imagine is Cage delivering the immortal lines: “You know, Lloyd, just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this ... and totally redeem yourself!” as apparently he was first choice over Jeff Daniels to star with Jim Carrey in 1994’s Dumb & Dumber.
In other trivia, Cage famously outbid Leonardo DiCaprio to win a $300,000 Mongolian dinosaur skull at auction that he had to give back when it transpired it had been stolen. Then there was the time he had to publicly quash a conspiracy theory that he’s a vampire. Apparently, Cage now lives in a small village in Somerset (or at least, he has a house there). Imagine bumping into Nicolas Cage at your local Spar! And let’s not forget when he made the greatest chatshow entrance of all time (somersault, leather jacket, hair flying) in 1990 on Wogan to promote Wild at Heart. He was also quite funny that time on Saturday Night Live.
Please get your questions in by 6pm BST on Monday 28 April and we’ll print his answers in Film&Music on Friday 9 May.
