Nicolas Cage is dishing about his last project, the extremely meta-movie “The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent”, which will see the Academy Award winner play himself…or at least a “stylized version” of himself, according to the actor.
“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,” he explains to Empire in a new interview.
In the upcoming film by Tom Gormican, Cage will play two different versions of “Nicolas Cage”: the present-day Cage and younger, wilder Cage. In the film, the present-day Cage begrudgingly agrees to attend the birthday party of a Mexican billionaire in exchange for a $1-million paycheque when “things take a wild turn, the Oscar winner is forced to become a version of some of his most iconic and beloved characters in order to extricate himself from an increasingly dangerous situation,” according to EW‘s description of the movie.
Now, Cage discusses the challenge of being confronted with his past roles and younger self. The 56-year-old actor will have to do something he rarely does: revisit his old movies.
“I don’t like to look back,” Cage explains, “but this movie kind of pushes it all back in my face. 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’.”
In order to find the right tone for the younger Cage in the film, the actor says he plans to channel his famously manic appearance on British chat show “Wogan” back in 1990 while promoting “Wild At Heart”. The iconic appearance features a then-26-year-old Cage somersaulting onto the stage, karate-kicking for the cameras and reaching into his pocket to throw money at the crowd.
“I got a little worked up,” he says in the “Wogan” interview, which is the Cage at his most Cagey.
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“Remember that talk show I went on, ‘Wogan‘, when I was promoting ‘Wild At Heart‘?” he asks. “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,” he tells Empire.
“The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent” will arrive in theatres in 2021.
