Out There with Nicholas Cage

Q: And when did you?

A: Maybe I jumped the gun, but when Valley Girl came out and was a hit, I got in my yellow Triumph Spitfire, put the top down, drove down Sunset Boulevard, put the cassette into the tape recorder, pressed play and just savored every word.

Q: Wasn't it after this film that you told your uncle, "You were great, but I hold the mantle now"? Which was a line James Joyce supposedly said to Henrik Ibsen. Were you joking or did you mean it?

A: I heard that line first at Francis's house. My father was there and Francis was talking about Ibsen and Joyce, and he said that line and then said, "I never understood what Joyce meant by that, but now I get it." I don't know what he meant by that, with my father sitting next to him. So years later when Valley Girl came out and Francis was by the fireplace--and I hope you make a note that I'm laughing now--he was lighting a cigar and I just said it: "You were great Francis, but I hold the mantle now." He got upset and flustered. Listen, I would be lying to you if I didn't say that there is a fundamental competitive edge amongst the men in my family. I don't know where it comes from.

Q: Were you also competitive among your friends as a child? Did you play any sports?

A: Sports caused me a great deal of difficulty in school. My nightmare was that moment of "Who's going to get picked for the team?" 'Cause I never got picked. My father wasn't the kind of guy that you played ball with. He was more like the kind of guy you'd go watch Citizen Kane with.

Q: Did you feel different from your friends?

A: I was always shocked when I went to the doctor's office and they did my X ray and didn't find that I had eight more ribs than I should have or that my blood was the color green. 

Q: Still, do you look back favorably on your childhood?

A: If I really analyzed my childhood I would have some difficulty with some of the stuff that went on, but I think I had some kind of guardian angel protecting me, because no matter how bizarre something got I was always able to look at it like it wasn't that strange.

Q: You said you looked upon your dad as James Bond with a PhD.

A: That was because my dad looks a lot like Sean Connery. I remember when he took me to the drive-in movie to see Dr. No, and basically I saw my father.

Q: You were the youngest of three brothers--were you pampered?

A: No. One of the reasons why I think I became a film actor is by the time I came around, the home movie camera was not out as much. There were all these pictures of Marc and of Christopher, but there were very few of me. So I'm just trying to make up for it now.

Q: Your mother suffered from severe depression and delusions, and eventually had to be institutionalized while you were a boy. When did you become aware of her illness?

A: I knew there was something wrong with her when she started talking to the wall. I remember saying, "Mom, walls don't talk." And she thought that was really funny. She's a very gentle person who is quite jolly, but like anybody who goes into these states, what they're see-ing is real. When she would go into those modes, she came up with the most incredible poetry, beautiful and power-ful and scary. The hardest thing about it, was just having to visit her in that place at a young age, going down that hallway in Norwalk with people grabbing you. Fortunately, knock on wood, everything's fine now.

Q: Has she seen all your films?

A: Yeah, but the time that I started working as an actor, she had been there for many years, so when she came out it was like Rip Van Winkle. She didn't know what the hell was going on. "What do you mean, Nicky's an actor?"

Q: You were 12 when your parents divorced--how hard was that?

A: I thought it was fascinating. I was going to act with the judge and I did. My brothers teased me because I had the biggest shit-eating grin on my face, talking about how great my dad is and how great my mom is.

Q: Both parents wanted custody?

A: Yeah. That was a sad day, because my mom wanted to be strong and wanted custody. Why are we talking about all this?

Q: Because it helps us understand who you are, and how you got to where you are. Like, you've said that a lot of the behaviors of characters you've played came from your mother.

A: Yes. I understand what you mean, it makes sense. That's probably why I'm answering you. I'm just not sure this is the right forum for it.

Q: Is it true that your mother used to tease your dad, saying that Robert Mitchum was actually your father?

A: Yes. I wish I had that picture to show you of Mitchum, which he inscribed, "To Joy, love and kisses, Bob." My dad always said, "Is Nicky mine?" And the joke is that everybody knew about it except me. It had been going on for years. My mother told me recently, "I just said that I was with another man, which I wasn't. I was just trying to make him angry." And I said, "But mom, I've been living with that 32 years, that anger." For 30 years my father's been a little angry with me and that's probably why.

Q: Did your father instill any religion in you?

A: I do not have a religion in my life, I wasn't raised that way. My father always believed that if I was going to have a religion I should discover it on my own and not have it crammed down my throat at a young age. I kind of wish I had some religion.

Q: Weren't you once attracted to Buddhism?

A: What I loved about Buddhism is that it suggests that we are already holy, that we are already in that enlightened state, which is very convenient. I used to like the saying: "To be like the lotus flower down the muddy waters of the river Nile, touched but not stained." I often think about that when I'm in situations where I feel like I'm touching something that I don't want to get on me, metaphorically.

Q: What books or writers influenced you?

A: Kafka's The Metamorphosis broke my heart. The notion of a young man waking up one morning as a cockroach and the hatred that he's feeling from his family was really the ultimate metaphor for teenage alienation. And I guess my favorite writer is Dostoyevsky.

Q: As far as actors' influences go, was it James Dean or Scott Baio who got you interested in acting?

A: It was James Dean in East of Eden. Scott Baio, I never even saw his show--all I know is that the girl I had a crush on in high school was looking at a picture of Scott Baio and I wanted her to be looking at a picture of me.

Q: Did studying at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco make you want to appear on stage?

A: No, I have stage fright. I don't like it. I've never gotten over it.

Q: What else has frightened you?

A: I don't know how to tell this story without sounding like a complete lunatic, but it was at my Uncle Francis's house in Napa. I was living in the attic, and there were bats there in between the walls--you could hear the scratching and the place smelled of guano. One night I was not asleep yet, but the door in front of my bed opened and there was this pitch-black silhouette of a woman with big hair. I thought it was my aunt coming to say good night. So I said, "Good night," and it didn't say anything. Then it moved towards me and my body froze up and I let out this bloodcurdling scream and threw my pillow. Then it disappeared. Now, am I saying I saw a ghost? I still don't know. But I saw something that freaked me out.

Q: Beverly Hills High School also apparently freaked you out because you left before graduating.

A: Let me make it clear that I didn't drop out of high school, I took the proficiency exam and got out on that. I was only going there to be in the plays, and when they didn't work I got out. My problem was that I didn't have any money and couldn't do the things that some of the other kids could do. I remember my prom was a complete disaster. I used bonds my grandmother had given me to rent a tuxedo and a limousine so I could go to the prom with this beautiful girl. And at the end of the night I went to kiss her and she responded. I was so nervous that my stomach got really nauseous and I said, "Excuse me" and just threw up on the street all over my shoes and my rented tux. The limo driver wouldn't let me in the car. He split and I had to walk home. That was my prom night.

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