What do ‘The Hour of Vengeance’, ‘Corrupt Cops’ and ‘Terrorist Hunt’ have in common? Apart from their Antena 3 movie titles at siesta time, all of them star the most recognizable ironically or post-ironically actor of the Internet age: Nicolas Cage.
In fact, in the last 12 years he has appeared in 47 films, from cult films like ‘Color out of space’ to badasses like ‘Willy’s Wonderland’ or authentic direct-to-video slop only suitable for coffee lovers. But, what has happened to him? How has the protagonist of ‘The Search’ and winner of an Oscar for ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ become practically a walking meme?
The Resurrection of Nicholas Cage
GQ has dedicated a wonderful profile to which I strongly recommend you spend fifteen minutes and that helps to better understand the figure of Nick Cage today, beyond the extravagances and the follies. Everything, from the start of the interview dressed in a kung-fu suit to the visit to his future tomb (a white pyramid almost three meters high with the inscription “Omnia ab uno” that is already built in New Orleans), Added to the films he has made in recent years, it makes us think that something is wrong with him. But it’s not like that: Nick is back at his best. Really.
Nicolas Cage may be fine now (or as fine as Nicolas Cage can be), but between 2009 and 2010, Nicolas Cage lost the two most important things in his life: his father and his career. ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ was such a (deserved) failure that mainstream studios closed their doors to it. You could forget about the third part of ‘The search’ (despite the fact that Disney is going to continue the saga as a television series with other actors) just at the worst moment: his agent had left him in financial ruin.
Drowning in debt, mourning his father and without any studio willing to hire him, our hero’s only path was to go forward and make as much money as he could by taking any role that fell into his hands. Thus, Cage has played Will Montgomery, a father in search of his kidnapped daughter, in ‘Time Trial’, Colin Pryde, a congressman involved in a sex scandal in ‘Scandal in Power’ or Noah Kross, a man who in the 2030 does not want to be exiled to a colony for unproductive citizens, in ‘The Agent’.
The weight of Nick’s talent
Masterpieces are scarce in his filmography in recent years, but if you look closely you can find small wonders like ‘Mandy’, ‘Teen Titans Go! The movie’, ‘Spider-man: A new universe’ or ‘Color out of space’. These will soon be joined by ‘Pig’ and ‘The unbearable weight of massive talent’, the movie that can change your career again and foreverin which he plays a broke actor named…Nick Cage.
However, the actor claims that none of these films, nor the ones you find scratching the bottom of the barrel, he did them without giving everything. He asks that we not be mistaken, he he always took care of each paper to the maximumand from what directors he’s worked with say, it most likely is.
When I was making four movies a year, one after another after another after another, I had yet to find something in them that would allow me to give it my all. None worked. Some were great, like ‘Mandy’, but others didn’t work. But I have never wandered. So if there was a misconception, it was that I just did it without caring. I cared about it.
Fans of Nick’s histrionic faces and impossible roles are in luck: officially, these twelve years of hyperactivity are over, and has managed to pay all his debts. He now begins a new stage of Nicolas Cage, in which he is going to be a father again, escape from being an actor-meme and go back to dedicating himself to star in the projects you love.
In his next film, ‘Renfield’, It will be Dracula himself, along with Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz. This is the path he wants to take: to select each project in an extreme way, as much as he can. He is aware that death can come at any moment (he is 58 years old, but do not forget that he already has his tomb built, okay?) And he intends to fix his career living each film as if it were the last.
But honestly None of us are ready for the latest Nicolas Cage movie.