Ghost Rider Interview
Q: How does he battle them?

Cage: He has these wonderful abilities, like hellfire and the chain that he can use and swing, and then he has the penance stare, where you can look at someone and make them review every bad, horrible thing they've ever done to anybody and then feel it and feel the pain of all their mistakes and sins and basically reduce you to a human jellyfish.


Interview with Nicolas Cage
IFQ sits down with Nicolas Cage, as he discusses how being a Coppola helped and hindered his career when he was breaking into Hollywood, how he chooses roles, the tabloids and his current projects.

IFQ: You have such a range as an actor and play an action hero in a big Hollywood film as good as a lone soul in a more intimate drama, how do you do it?

Nicolas Cage: It's really just my job as an actor to keep myself interested, keep myself challenged. Try to stretch myself. I don't consider myself as a master of the craft [of acting]. I consider myself a student and I always have something to learn. When you look at it that way, there is a 50 percent chance you will make mistakes and you won't succeed, but there is also a 50 percent chance that you will find something new and it's a matter of staying interested. I never want to get trapped in any one type of role. I think I would have been a much bigger "star," if you will, if I had only done a certain type of role that people can count on, but it would be boring and I'd rather take chances in different areas. The other aspect of it is the unknown, it's beyond. I get into a mode where I almost like channeling and trying to find inspiration.


Cage - eccentric, prankster, star (article)
Are you as obsessed as your character?
I have had my obsessions. And he (Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure) certainly is a character who is obsessed with . . . this marvellous Templar treasure and he has devoted his entire life to finding it in the face of great ridicule. I've been obsessed over the years with where I go with acting or how I could challenge myself with that.


Another NT Interview ith Nic Cage
Q: Are you still able to find the challenges you were able to find in your early career?
A: Nic: Yeah. I’ve always maintained that I see myself as a student. There’s always something to learn and be challenged by and hopefully grow from. So absolutely.


NT-An interview with Nicolas Cage by Kev Lewin & Amanda Lornie
Why were you intrigued by the role of Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure? It was the idea of a man going in and stealing the Declaration of Independence. The character is audacious and he's bold. And I got to do it in a tuxedo! Director Jon Turteltaub kept pushing it towards a stylisation, not unlike what Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart might've done back in the 1930s or 1940s.


Interview with Nic Cage
Q: Turning 40 changed you?
A: Well, I always add a year to myself, so I'm prepared for the next birthday. So when I was 39, I was already 40, and now I'm 41 (laughter). It makes me - I'm feeling - I don't want to say happy because that's too fragile a word, but I'm definitely content, and I'm hopeful about the future, although I'm spending most of my time thinking about the present.


Excerpts from interviews with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery
Nicolas Cage: It was just great. I never took the part [in LEAVING LAS VEGAS] with that in mind. Well, YOU know that. We've talked about my career choices for years. I've always been a bit quirky in my choices. It was gratifying to have one of those "bizarre" choices pay off so completely. In fact, I wanted to do a thriller [like THE ROCK] before I ever dreamed I would win that award.


Nicolas Cage on family and film
Q: Did something change for you when you turned 40 years old? Does the subject about age bother you?

A: Yes, but I have my secret: I always add a year to myself so I am prepared for my next birthday. When I was 39 I was already 40 and now I am 41 (he laughs). I don't want to say happy, because that's too fragile a word, but definitely I am content.


Interview with Nic
Q: Of all the action films you get offered, what was it about this one that struck your fancy?

A: NC: I think that the very thing that made me trepidatious was the same thing that intrigued me, which is the idea of a man going in and stealing the declaration of Independence. I thought: this doesn't seem very plausible, and how can this actually be pulled off. I met with John Turteltaub and he said: ŒBut that's what's interesting. He's audacious. He's bold.' And Jerry Bruckheimer always brings in a great group of technical advisers who do the research and try to figure out exactly how to make it within the context of the film seem as believable as possible. And I got to do it in a tuxedo, so that was interesting to me as well.


'National Treasure' role intrigued Cage
Cage says he can relate to Ben's single-mindedness.

"He certainly is a character who is obsessed about this treasure, the marvelous Templar treasure, and has devoted his entire life... to figure out exactly what he needs to find it, in the face of great ridicule," the actor says in a press conference at the St. Regis Hotel in Los Angeles' Century City area. "I've been obsessed over the years with where I could go with acting or how I could challenge myself with that."


Nicolas unCaged
Q: ARE YOU AS OBSESSED AS YOUR CHARACTER?

CAGE: “Without going into too much detail, I have had my obsessions. And he (Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure) certainly is a character who is obsessed with this treasure, this marvellous Templar treasure, and he has devoted his entire life to find it in the face of great ridicule. I’ve been obsessed over the years with where I go with acting or how I could challenge myself with that.”


INTERVIEW: Nicolas Cage on "National Treasure"
Q: What was it about “National Treasure” that excited you?

NICOLAS: Well I think that the very thing that made me trepidacious was the same thing that intrigued me which is the idea of a man going in and stealing the Declaration of Independence, I thought, well this doesn’t seem very plausible. And a how can this actually be pulled off? I met with Jon Turteltaub. And he said, “But well, that’s interesting, he’s audacious, he’s bold” and Jerry Bruckheimer brings in a great group of technical advisors who do the research and try to figure out exactly how to make it within the context of the film seem as believable as possible. And I got to do it in a tuxedo, so that was interesting for me as well (laughs).


Role tweaked Cage's interest in history
Q: What's the hardest thing about doing an action film?

A: Staying alive. On one picture a bomb actually went off close to my face and the heat burned me a little bit. ... In this movie we were dangling from wires - many, many feet above the ground - and that was pretty harrowing.


Nic's knack: Actor Cage reflects on his new adventure film
"I don't really look at myself as a successful person,'' he said. "I always look at myself as someone who's trying to find the next place to go or the next thing to discover. I have a difficult time looking at the cup half full; I always tend to look at it a little half empty."


NT & Nicolas Cage: Swimming With Sharks
We were trying to find the tone of the movie. I have to credit [director] Jon Turteltaub for a lot of that, because he kept encouraging it to be more playful in keeping with Cary Grant pictures like To Catch a Thief. The challenge in rehearsals was uncovering the playfulness. That is something that just happens on the set, by having the opportunity to work with Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha. Both actors have very off-the-wall senses of humor, like mine. So there is an instantaneous chemistry that happens between the three of us that lent itself to Jon and Jerry's vision of the movie.


One Cage-y man
You work a lot (Cage is up next in The Weather and has been filming Lord of War in South Africa). Do you think about slowing down? "I always think about that. I took a year - almost - off after Matchstick Men to find my next picture, which was National Treasure. (Then) I sort of hit a spurt where there were screenplays that seemed interesting enough and diverse enough to want to continue working."


Flick puts Cage back in action
Cage says he truly enjoyed making "National Treasure," the sort of popcorn adventure that could have been made in any decade since the 1930s. While there are undoubtedly computer effects in the finished product, they never draw attention to themselves or overshadow the story.


Interview With Nicolas Cage
Nicholas Cage is not so much quiet as he is sedate, sitting next to two arguably less-acclaimed individuals. His eyes scratch the table and his head finds its way into his hands after more than one uncomfortable question. He’s not pretentious, rather simple and solemn. He radiates in Adaptation, but as a born loser, unable to accomplish his modest goals. Perhaps it is this character that has seeped into his demeanor and caused him to adopt a detached tone when speaking with me.

“I think at one point or another I started to adopt the paranoid mindset of Charlie Kaughman (as the character in the movie),” Cage said.

Cage is currently caught in the aftershock of this phenomenal representation, a fact that reminds him that even a star can doubt himself. He said that playing the self-loathing Kaughman character was not necessarily a complete stretch.

“I go through my days where I do that,” Cage said, referring to a scene in which he looks in the mirror and derides his personal attributes. “I would venture to guess that we all do it. It wasn’t that far from my own personal truth.”

While Cage may be he big man now, it seems he has not always been on the top rung of the social ladder. He admitted his decision to drop out of high school was largely motivated by a desire to escape social pressure.

“I took the GEDs because I could, and I got out,” Cage said. “I didn’t respond very well to the social issues that occur in school.”

Cage said he also felt a lot of pressure with the ladies.

“Being in a situation where you have to have a certain amount of this or a certain amount of that to date girls or blah blah blah. It wasn’t a fun experience for me. I felt very much on the outside,” he said.

Of course Cage does get a few ladies in Adaptation. As the Kaughman character he is sexually ambiguous, but he also plays his twin brother Donald. Donald is something of a playboy, courting scores of beautiful women. Cage said his demeanor for the day was often the deciding factor in which character he would perform.

“Each day we’d see which side of the bed I came out on,” said Cage. “If I got out of the Charlie side of the bed, we’d record Charlie. Then I would change clothes and turn into Donald. I’d come back and there’d be an X or a tennis ball that I would look at that would be Charlie’s space.”

Cage said he felt uniquely challenged when acting out scenes in which he played two characters. In the end, however, he mastered it by falling back on solid performing techniques.

“By some definition all acting is imagination,” Cage said. “It is make-believe. If you’re able to imagine that you’re really a character, you’re able to imagine that this tennis ball is really your twin brother.”

Another challenge for Cage was playing a character whose name and demeanor resembled his real-life buddy Charlie Kaughman. While Cage did not completely base the character off its real-life counterpart, he said he and the real Kaughman did have some discussions, or rather incidents, in the creation of the character.

“I would go to lunch with (the real) Charlie and he would take a menu and start flapping it under his arms like wings,” Cage said.

Cage said that Kaughman had a way of toying with him, offering absurdities to match his actual emotional characteristics. Cage did, however, express his sadness in the fact that he never got to perform a menu-flapping scene in the film.


Nicolas Cage says fame and acting don't mix
Actor Nicolas Cage says being a celebrity often interferes with his job as an actor. "It's something I grapple with all the time," said the actor, in Toronto for the North American gala premiere of Matchstick Men Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opens in theatres Sept. 12. "The studios need me to do things like talk shows and what not, and I don't want to become a fake or a phoney. That situation automatically puts you in a phoney or artificial situation."


Nicolas Cage - Adaptaion
Was it hard to leave the brothers behind?
I've gotten pretty good at leaving characters on the set. I go home and try to relax and regroup and be ready for the next day. I did have fun, but by the end of the shoot I was relieved.


Interview with John Woo, Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach
When I work with John, sometimes we have ideas that happen five minutes before we shoot the scene. What that does, I think, is it gives the performances this very spontaneous, fresh style to it and I think you can see that in all of John's movies. So it's always very exciting on the set.


Interview of the week: Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is a master of adaptation. In a career that has spanned nearly two decades, the versatile 38-year-old has transformed himself from teen idol ("Valley Girl,") to serious dramatic actor ("Leaving Las Vegas,") to comedian ("Raising Arizona,") to action star ("Con Air.")


Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble.com:
You and Martin Scorsese seem like such a natural match. Did you two do anything together before BRINGING OUT THE DEAD?
Nicolas Cage:
We had not worked together, but we had met. And we spent about an hour at his house. He and I, we talked about different things we wanted to do. Actually, I think it was Francis [Ford Coppola], my uncle, who put that together. Francis knew I wanted to work with Marty. And since Francis and Marty are friends, he would say to Marty, "Would you meet the kid?" And so I met him, and we had a nice talk and I told him what I was trying to do. That was five years ago. And then I got the offer to do this with him.
Thanks Lisa


Keeping Up with Nicolas Cage in Hollywood's fast lane
I like going fast," says Nicolas Cage at the Four Seasons during a round of interviews. "I like that adrenaline I feel. It's just my personality." The 35-year-old star is describing race-car driving, a hobby he probably picked up as a car thief during the making of Gone in 60 Seconds. Fast is the right word for Cage's amazing career, he's made movies at a breakneck speed since his film debut (at age 17) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. During the past two decades, Cage has completed 38 pictures, including such gems as Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, and Wild at Heart.


Nicolas Cage "Sony"
Have you always secretly wanted to be a director more than an actor? - No, I always wanted to be an actor. That was my first love and still is. Even the movie I’ve made is driven by performance and acting. My name still is Nicolas Coppola, I never changed my name legally. Cage is my acting name, or my surrealistic name. But, uh, when I decided to do this movie I just went and did it. Nobody from my family knew about it


Barbara Walters
It's a good one. I think what happened was I became a father. And when I became a father, I stopped smoking, I fastened my seatbelt, I started seeing myself as not just me. It pulled me out of the narcissism of an actor and put me into the reality that there's someone who's so much, more important than me that I can care about and love.



Nicolas Cage/Sony
Did anyone in your family give you any input on directing "Sonny?" When I made this movie, I just decided to go and do it, and no one in the family knew about it. I just went down there in February.



Nicolas Cage/Life of David Gale
Were you ever considering starring in the film? It was something that was developed with the idea that I might play it. But I don't know, I went on to do other things and by the time that this script was finished, I really felt that it probably would suit another actor. So that's what happened with that.



Nicolas Cage/CCM
What was it like being in a romantic movie again? For me, it was like a return to a different style that I'd done in the past. I had done several other romantic films. I just wanted to do this for me - try to step out of the box a little bit, think a little differently.



A twin bill from Cage
"This is so I am protected by the 'Good Eye,'" he says with a grin. "I saw it in a store, and I liked it. I thought it was a good thing to have."



Keeping up with Nicolas Cage
I like going fast.” “I like that adrenaline I feel. It's just my personality.”



Shooting The Breeze
Windtalkers has a very old-school feel about it. Did you ever see yourself as a John Wayne-type character? John Wayne is a huge American icon and I respect the man for all that he accomplished, but I never thought of myself like that all.



US Mag 1998
Well, then you just surf. You just pick and choose. You go from one to the other, whenever you're in the right place. And that's where I wanted to be. So now I'm just going to start dancing. Surfing. Maybe I'll start dancing on my surfboard. And I'll get the Hawaiian shirt out.



Commentary/Vampires Kiss
Yeah, I was pretty nuts about getting a bat, which of course was going to cause all sorts of problems with the animal rights people



United Press International

Interview of the week

"I want a response. I want a reaction," he stated, explaining why he signs on for difficult projects like "Sonny" or "Adaptation.

Film of the week

Reviewers are raving over the Nicolas Cage-Meryl Streep comedy "Adaptation".


Caged Heat
"In some ways, I feel more creatively satisfied working in the action genre than I have on almost anything else. Action films are a tremendous world stage; everyone goes to them. And generally, they're not getting good character acting--just a little dialogue before cutting to the explosions."


John Woo, Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach
That was amazing actually, when all of us heard Adam going into Navajo, we just stopped and looked at each other. The most beautiful and exotic alien sound I've ever heard and apparently a very complex language. He did a great job.



It's all Greek to Nic
"I'd heard Cephallonia is cursed with bad dreams and I had some fairly violent ones when I was out there," he says. "I dreamed about soldiers killing one another, so you can read into that what you will. I felt in touch with the ghosts that were there. I didn't think they would hurt me because I felt that they wanted me to tell their story."



E-OnLine
I was trying to find a symbolic metaphor for the love Cameron has for his child in the middle of all this hell, and also a way to extract humor. By writing that scene, I wanted to have a straightforward, tough-guy attitude about the bunny rabbit.



Cinema.com
I think that spending a few months working in Greece was a very beautiful and relaxing experience. This (Mandolin) is one of the best movies I've ever made. It's a beautiful story, and I think audiences will be touched by it."



FilmForce
I was excited to be surrounded by so many creative people in all walks of the filmmaking process. And I like the idea of being re-ignited myself as an actor by getting to work with so many great people."



Flicks
Yeah, when they'll let me, it is. I got a copy of the script and I saw the potential, but Cameron Poe [Cage's part in CON AIR] wasn't a very real person -- just the usual "average guy in a dangerous situation." I wanted him to be more than that.



Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Do you like romances? Yes, I like love stories. I'm a romantic (he asked first wife Patricia Arquette to marry him on the day he met her!). I always have been.



Reel.com



AOL Chat Transcript 2002
I'm going to say that I don't regret doing any of my movies, even the ones that haven't worked, because they're my teachers. I learn from my mistakes. And they're all my children, on some level, my characters. So some of them are not doing so well, and some of them are doing better. But you love them all.



BBC World
But mostly, for me, the reason why I wanted to do it was the idea of playing a father to a teenage daughter that he didn’t know he had. I thought that that would be funny, and the frustration that must come from trying to be a father without any parenting experience gave me room for some really interesting scenes and behaviour that I could show my frustration.”



CBSnews.com Interview
"I like to exercise. I feel better when I work out," he explains. "The exercise is really a way that I keep everything kind of together. That morning ritual of exercise. Sort of blow out the stress. I'll have to find something else to do...eat pizza."



NC thrives in out-of-the-ordinary roles
"I will always love automobiles as art, but what gets a little scary is when you start to worship them like false icons."



The acclaimed actor discusses...
"I was very adrenalized and stimulated by the experience," says Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage, speaking at a recent roundtable interview in Los Angeles about his directorial debut, Sonny. "I was excited to be surrounded by so many creative people in all walks of the filmmaking process. And I like the idea of being re-ignited myself as an actor by getting to work with so many great people."



Nicolas Cage's life
Nicolas Cage's life has been one big identity crisis. And he likes it that way. Though he never made it official with the government, Nicolas Kim Coppola changed his name early on to avoid the wrath of jealous actors and accusations of favoritism because of the famous members in his family tree, mainly his Oscar-winning director uncle, Francis Ford Coppola