The Good Times of Nicolas Cage

Q: How much fun was it shooting a submachine gun?

A: I wouldn't say it was fun. Ever since the Brandon Lee thing I'm very nervous about guns on the set. It's something you have to treat with respect and be careful around. It makes me more on edge. Plus they're extremely loud and you have to wear stuff in your ears or you will lose your hearing.

Q: To research Con Air you got permission to walk among the prisoners at Folsom State Prison. How scary was that?

A: Very scary. Very successful. Got some good ideas talking to them, but your mind starts to trip out to the fact that you're talking to someone who's killed people. It's like you enter a black hole of sorts, where you don't really know where you are. It's quite terrifying.

Q: Jerry Bruckheimer said when you flew to Tokyo to promote Con Air you wore an orange jumpsuit and hat, with green shoes and blue sunglasses. What impression did you make on the Japanese?

A: I don't know. [Laughs] I was feeling very Warhol-esque on that day.

Q: Have you seen the double-image print of Superman that Andy Warhol did?

A: I have it. What I like so much about Warhol--and he's actually influenced my acting, especially with Wild at Heart--is that he takes these icons and makes them his own, which is a brave thing to do. With acting it's not something you're supposed to do--you're never supposed to mimic or copy another person. For Wild at Heart I thought, Let's be Elvis. I've always called that my Warhol performance, because I tried to subvert the image. Superman is a similar experience. With any luck we can be Warhol-ian about it.

Q: With Tim Burton directing and you starring, will this be a much different _Superma_n than we've seen before?

A: Quite different. There's some very exciting concepts they're coming up with in terms of the flying itself. The two major things are to make people feel like they're seeing flying, and also to give people the joy we all experience of wanting to be somebody else who's got super powers. I don't want to give too much away about my take on the character. I do want to make a statement that it's OK to be different. For children who feel out of place, like circles in a world of square pegs, I thought, Why not take the greatest icon in the world of the child, Superman, and make him different? He's from another planet, he's an alien. If Superman's different then maybe a kid who feels weird can say, "So what? I'm different, so's Superman." It's a very simple, but important, message. I haven't really made a movie that children could go see.

Q: How challenging is that Superman costume?

A: That's the biggest challenge for me. Committing to the costume. Unlike the look of Batman, which is inherently sexy because he's all in dark colors, the Superman costume can go into silliness very easily. I was afraid of wearing the red underwear, because I could never understand why he wears the underwear on the outside. I took some pictures without the underwear and I showed them to my seven-year-old son, Weston, and he said, "Where's the underwear on the outside?" I said, "I'm not going to wear it." "Why, are you embarrassed?" "Yeah." "No, Superman has to have that." So I'm back to experimenting with it. Because it is an indelible impression, something about that look worked; it's an icon that's been around at least 50 years and I don't want to mess with it.

Q: Hard to imagine you not messing with it.

A: Well, I just want to go a little bit further with the concept. He's definitely going to be an alien. What Christopher Reeve did was perfect, so what else can we do with it? It's a simple, but perfect, story. Because it has so many levels and layers to it, it has become the great myth of pop American culture. There's the whole question of adoption--he was adopted by these ordinary but kind people in Smallville. It's a story of father-and-son unlike any I can think of in pop culture. It's also a great story of nurture versus nature: what is his genetic encoding vs. the way he was brought up? You could get very scientific about it. It's going to be a great acting challenge, because I've got to commit to conveying when he's Superman that he's a warrior from the future, and not be embarrassed by that suit.

Q: How about the challenge of making us believe when you put on glasses you're a totally different person?

A: On a subliminal level that's a beautiful metaphor--you can be a wallflower who's very shy and uncomfortable, but all you have to do is take off your glasses and you're beautiful. There's something quite magical about it.

Q: How passionate will Superman get with Lois Lane?

A: Hopefully it will be about longing and wanting something that you can't really have because you're different.

Q: Let's talk about being different. Director Michael Bay said he likes quirky, weird sensibilities and there's no one weirder than you. How does that make you feel?

A: How does that make me feel? I just don't feel like I'm that weird. When I was a kid I felt like I was more weird. Patricia will say, "You're more normal than anybody I know, but people think you're weird." Do you think I'm weird, sitting here talking?

Q: You seem normal.

A: I find it weird that people say I'm weird. Maybe people say I'm weird because nobody wants to be the weirdest one on the set and it's just easier to point the finger at somebody who's already been labeled that.

Q: Maybe the label isn't personal but professional.

A: My performances, that I understand. I've always had a fascination with the bizarre, the surreal, the Grand Guignol, the grotesque. I've always liked imperfections. I never really wanted to sell perfection.

Q: Holly Hunter said you based your character in Raising Arizona on Woody Woodpecker. That's weird, isn't it?

A: I based him on Woody Woodpecker, yeah. It's fun and ultimately funny to do that. Comic books and cartoons have had a lot of influence in my life. I'm like a sponge. I could see a commercial on TV and get an idea, just the delivery somebody gave will stay in my head, and I will spew it back out. What leaves an impression on me is probably what people respond to as being weird.

Q: Jim Carrey told us last month that you were the first guy that he saw in a really big-money situation who was still experimenting and taking huge risks. He was referring to working with you on Peggy Sue Got Married. He said that a lot of people felt you ruined the movie because of that voice you used. But Carrey admired your guts.

A: That was nice of Jim. He's also a huge risk-taker. We've inspired each other a lot. Look, I did not want to be in Peggy Sue Got Married. I turned it down three times. Francis said, "I really need you to be in the movie." I read the script, which was a perfectly romantic film, but the character he wanted me to play was boring. He was the babe to Kathleen Turner's starring role. Just like women don't want to play the babe in movies, I didn't want to be Kathleen Turner's babe. I just wanted to play a character. So I thought, How can I make this guy really far out? I asked Francis about it on the phone and he said, Absolutely. I said, "I want to go really far out." He asked, "How far do you want to go?" I said, "I want to talk like Pokey" Because to me it was funny. And also, it was the way a lot of guys in high school sounded before their voices changed--they always had this high-sounding voice that would crack. When I see the movie now I'm really happy that I did that. I really am.

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