In the film industry there are many types of actors that you can expect to come across. Actors like Gary Oldman and Daniel Day-Lewis who inhabit the skin of their characters to the point where it’s easy to forget they are just actors playing a part. Then there are actors like Liam Neeson and Gerard Butler, who may have range but don’t get much of a chance to show it. Then there’s another type of actor who doesn’t fit into any kind of category, someone who can be thought of as, for lack of a better term, unique. I’m talking of course about Nicolas Cage.
To anyone reading this who doesn’t know who Nicolas Cage is, it’s difficult to do him justice in as few words as possible since I don’t think there’s anyone quite like him; but I’ll try.
While most people know him under the name Cage, that’s just his stage name, his real name is Nicolas Kim Coppola. His uncle is the legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, the man behind such films as The Godfather Trilogy and Apocalypse Now.
He made his film debut in 1982 in Fast Times At Ridgemont High as a 17-year-old, and after the cast of that film apparently quoted his uncle’s films at him all the time he was working, he decided he would change his last name from Coppola to Cage.
Despite what sounds like a less than pleasant beginning to his career, it did eventually take off with roles in Peggy Sue Got Married and Raising Arizona. But I personally think Cage’s first real shot at mainstream attention came from his starring in the romantic comedy-drama Moonstruck. It’s definitely a crowd-pleaser and it did win Cher an Oscar.
Cage’s body of work began to build and before long he won his own Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995. Both before and after this he appeared in nearly all the major genres of film, such as action, comedy, drama, family, animation and of course fantasy and horror.
I don’t doubt for a second a lot of this looks good on paper but as it is for many stars, for every good film there’s a bad one waiting round the corner. You don’t need me to tell you that bad films and Nicolas Cage have a long and painful history together: Rage, Trespass and Left Behind. The only real experience I have with any of these is seeing Left Behind on Netflix and after that I haven’t gone near the others. But I do find it interesting how the number of bad films he was in really goes up in the 21st century.
I could go on at length about Nicolas Cage and all the bad roles that he has taken on. But I have to mention in particular those films that are so bad they are borderline hilarious. The best example of this may be the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man which seems to consist of Cage acting as unhinged as possible, culminating in his punching a woman while wearing a bear suit… not forgetting his famous, “not the bees!” line. Even after being in Moonstruck he was in The Vampire’s Kiss which sees him reciting the alphabet in a way that is both cringe-inducing and unforgettable.
There was a short but noteworthy phase in the 1990s where Cage was in some very over-the-top action films like Face/Off, Con Air and The Rock. These were by no means high art, but from I wouldn’t call them a complete waste of time with nothing to offer. Face/Off may be dumb, but it’s stylishly directed and includes Cage dancing in a priest’s outfit and shrugging when he kills someone. I can’t speak too much for Con Air but The Rock seems to be a Michael Bay film that a majority of people approve of.
I feel I’ve teased it enough and now here it is. If there’s one thing that’s unique to Cage, that he owns like a trademark, it’s his acting style. Mainly the overacting where he’s often been known to scream at the top of his lungs. We’ve regularly seen him making fast and often erratic body movements, and smiling in a way that may feel unsettling in the right circumstances. There are even compilation videos of him screaming and shouting with little to nothing in the way of context and yet audiences, me included, can’t help but be captivated by what he’s doing. Even in something like Moonstruck he managed to fit in a little yelling, even if it was tame compared with what he would do in the future.
If I hadn’t laid it out, it might have come as a surprise to learn the variety of his roles. As well as the films with the yelling, he does have a fair amount of range. I saw him in Adaptation where despite the film’s quirky nature, Cage resisted the temptation to go over the top and he was positively but restrained. He’s also done films for Disney like National Treasure and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice as well as voice work in The Croods films, G-Force, The Ant Bully and Astro Boy. There was admittedly some overacting in National Treasure 2 but at least it didn’t last long, consisting of him screaming in a horrible English accent. Tame by his standards, but without a doubt the highlight of that film.
Speaking of him giving restrained performances, he was unusually calm in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent even though it seemed tailor-made for his style of overacting. He did some more ‘unhinged’ acting in Renfield but wasn’t in it much, despite being made to look like the reason to go and see it.
He’s fought hard for roles in big films like Green Goblin in Spider-Man before losing to Willem Dafoe, along with parts in The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings. However he also was offered, but turned down, the role of Shrek. I have nothing against Mike Myers but even after all these years it’s worth wondering what someone like Cage might have done with that.
As well as Green Goblin, there’s one other part Cage is notorious for wanting. For years he’s had a well-known desire to play Superman. He almost achieved it back in the 1990s, but due to budgetary problems that film was never made. Had it been, Cage would have played his dream role and Tim Burton would have been directing. Apart from a documentary on the subject, all that seems to exist of it is a picture of Cage, in the Superman outfit, with terrible hair; the rest is anyone’s guess.
Given how he acts (or is expected to act), opinions of him as an actor from audiences and critics seem to be as variable as his films. In the good films he’s in, he’s often considered one of the reasons for their success. Even in a bad film like Vampire’s Kiss or The Wicker Man he’s the one element of those films that people will still try to appreciate. I suspect he’s aware of how the public sees him, but to his credit he doesn’t seem too bothered by that, given that his part in Unbearable Weight was really just a fictionalised version of himself.
An actor like Nicolas Cage is just the kind of person to attract internet memes, and having done a little checking I’ve seen many memes of him to enjoy. The most famous one is of course from Vampire’s Kiss and it’s a picture of him bulging his eyes; the words, “you don’t say” usually follow. Cage may not be entirely comfortable with the memes but they are popular and like anything else on the internet they’re here to stay.
There are some other interesting details about him outside acting. He’s a geek when it comes to superheroes. He may not have been Superman in a big-budget, live-action film, but that didn’t stop him from taking the role and getting a few lines in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and a brief Superman cameo in The Flash. He even has a son called Kal-El, which is Superman’s real name before it was Clark Kent. That’s not all, as one of the reasons he chose the name Cage was down to his fondness for Marvel Comics character Luke Cage. Given what he’s said about his time making Ridgemont High I don’t think he’s used the Coppola name for any advantage that might have come his way.
When all is said and done I think the word best suited to Nicolas Cage is intriguing. He’s done films that include the great, the good, the bad and the terrible. Even when the film is a disaster, people seem more than happy to sit back and watch him. They may have wondered what it is that makes him act the way he does. I don’t know, and it’s possible that Cage doesn’t know either. I’m sure he will continue to make films for as long as feels he can, with lots more overacting; but that shouldn’t take anything from his restrained side, which I like to think is impressive as long as the story and characters are strong enough.
That being said, I think I prefer it when Nicolas is let out of the cage.