Nicolas Cage is a serious thespian. He’s even won an Academy Award. But people on social media have a habit of cherry-picking things they like and discarding the rest. Some of the first “supercuts” to become popular on YouTube way back when involved Cage, who’s known to go over-the-top. It’s one thing that’s kept him popular. Understandably he has mixed feelings on this.
In a new interview with The Guardian (in a bit teased out by Variety), Cage acknowledged the elephant in the room, claiming he “might have been the first actor who went through a kind of meme-ification.” According to him, “One person had cherrypicked from all these different movies where I was having meltdowns, but without any regard for how the character got to that place. I was frustrated because I didn’t know what people were taking from the movies other than that.”
Of course, the information superhighway wasn’t a thing when he got his start.
“I got into acting because I was moved by film performance more than any other art form. I didn’t get into movies to become a meme,” he said. “I thought maybe they would compel someone to go back and look at the movies. But I had no control over it.”
Cage found that his latest film, the surrealist comedy Dream Scenario, inadvertently commented on his struggle. In the film, people keep having dreams of his character, a nobody professor, turning him into a celebrity. As with him and memes, Cage says, his character “has no control over this inexplicable phenomenon.”
So when you’re watching a supercut of, let’s say, Cage’s bonkers work in 1989’s Vampire’s Kiss on YouTube, maybe think about watching the whole movie — especially since that one is basically a full-length YouTube supercut containing maybe his bravest performance.
(Via The Guardian and Variety)