Nicolas Cage would like us all to know that he sees himself as a “thespian” rather than an “actor”, thank you very much.
For several decades now, Cage has been putting his own unique spin on acting. His in-your-face turn in Face/Off. His thrilling performance in Pig. His downright ridiculous acting in The Wicker Man. His unforgettably ludicrous role in Mandy. Were these all the work of a thespian?
That’s what Cage himself thinks. The idiosyncratic performer was speaking about his long career on the latest episode of Variety‘s Awards Circuit podcast when he commented on how he’d like to be viewed.
“For me it always implies, ‘Oh, he’s a great actor, therefore he’s a great liar,'” Cage said. “So with the risk of sounding like a pretentious asshole, I like the word ‘thespian’ because thespian means you’re going into your heart, or you’re going into your imagination, or your memories or your dreams, and you’re bringing something back to communicate with the audience.”
While admitting that his style of acting could be perceived as being “over the top”, he said, “Well, when they say that to me, I say, ‘You tell me where the top is and I’ll tell you whether or not I’m over it.'”
Cage went on to explain that his acting choices, perhaps surprisingly, have all been very intentional. “It was my aunt Talia Shire who first said to me, ‘Naturalism is a style,'” he recalled. “And I was also a big believer in arts synchronicity, and that what you could do with one art form you could do and another meaning.
You know, in painting, for example, you can get abstract, you can get photorealistic, you can get impressionistic, why not try that with film performance?”
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He continued by looking at specific examples in his work. “Stanislavski said the worst thing an actor can do is imitate. Being a bit of a rebel, I wanted to break that rule. So I tried with ‘Wild at Heart,’ a Warhol-like approach to the Sailor Ripley character.
In movies, like ‘Prisoners of the Ghost Land’ or even ‘Face/Off’ or ‘Vampire’s Kiss,’’ I was experimenting with what I would like to call Western Kabuki or more Baroque or operatic style of film performance. Break free from the naturalism, so to speak, and express a larger way of performance.”
What do you think Cage’s believes his most “thespian” performance has been? I’d like to think it’s his work in National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
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