When Nicolas Cage says he can’t watch a movie because it’s “too much of a whacked-out trip” for him, that is saying something. In his upcoming film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, &we see Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage, unfulfilled creatively and facing financial ruin. He accepts a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things get Cagey when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and must channel his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones. Nicolas Cage has to go full Nicolas Cage.
He shares about his experience playing the iconic Nicolas Cage saying, “I’m never going to see that movie. I’m told it’s a good movie. My manager, Mike Nilon, who is also a producer on it, looked at it. He was very happy. I’m told the audience loved the movie. But it’s just too much of a whacked-out trip for me to go to a movie theater and watch me play Tom Gormican’s highly-neurotic, anxiety-ridden version of me. Because he kept pushing me in that direction. I said ‘Tom, that’s not really me. I’m really (made of) quiet, meditative, thoughtful moments. I’m not this neurotic, high-strung, anxiety-ridden guy all the time.’ But he said, ‘well, neurotic Cage is the best Cage.’ I said, ‘okay, okay. Let’s go, man. I’ll do what you want.’ I won’t see it. But I do hope you enjoy it.”
He goes on further to explain, “It’s a stylized version of me, and the fact I even have to refer to myself in the third person makes me extremely uncomfortable,” Cage said of the project previously. “There are many scenes in the movie where modern or contemporary – here we go – ‘Nic Cage’ and then young ‘Nic Cage’ are colliding and arguing and battling it out. It’s an acrobatic approach to acting. I’m probably going to have to look at a couple of the movies from the past again, because I think we’re gonna have to re-enact some of those sequences. It’s like walking through a Cabinet of Dr. Caligari version of Con Air and Face / Off.”
“Remember that talk show I went on, Wogan, when I was promoting Wild At Heart? Young Nic Cage (in the film) will be that guy. But this is a very stylized version of me. It’s definitely just me ‘taking the piss’, as they say, out of myself.” I wasn’t familiar with the Wogan show appearance and looked it up. Treat yourself! You will not be asking for these minutes back. Just prepare yourself for the Nicolas Cage YouTube rabbit hole to follow.
Bring on the wigs and makeup, the antics, I want it all. The double scoop of Cage in Adaptation proved to be the exception to the rule of ‘you can have too much of a good thing.’ But this triple-dipple multi-tiered Cage cake with extra Cage sprinkles that is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent? Let’s just all fast-forward to April 22 2022 so we can finally see this Cage cornucopia. This news originated at IndieWire.