June 2002 By Philip Berk
It’s been eight years since Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas.
Few actors of his stature have failed to earn a second nomination, let alone an Oscar.
But then again, the films he’s chosen since, such as The Rock, Con Air, and Gone in Sixty Seconds, have rarely been of award winning calibre.
No wonder Sean Penn recently accused him of selling out.
His latest, Windtalkers even though it’s directed by John Woo is another unremarkable mainstream product.
At his press conference for the film, he looked unusually trim. His receding hairline has been reversed, and he sports a full head of pitch black hair.
But as usual he is restless and edgy.
When I ask him what he thought of Sean’s comments, he doesn’t miss a beat.
“I don’t think he ever actually said that,” he answers, “but my feelings are, whatever his opinion is, he’s entitled to it.”
Did it bother him?
“I suppose if I gave it a lot of thought, it might bother me, but I am not thinking that much about it.”
The two of them once worked together in Racing With the Moon
Did he think of calling him?
“No I didn’t.”
Of course Sean saw no wrong in appearing in Friends on television.
His excuse? He needed the money.
A few years ago Nicolas offered an equally good explanation.
“I’ve seen a lot of so-called serious actors win an award and then sort of serious themselves right out of the business, and the next thing you know they’re supporting action stars to keep their careers alive. I’m just trying to keep acting.
“And, by the way, Leaving Las Vegas was made because I was in a movie like It Could Happen to You and was then able to greenlight it. So with my ability to generate box-office, I intend to greenlight more adventuresome material.”
Thus far he hasn’t been too successful.
Except for the forthcoming Adaptation, none of his movies could be called adventuresome. And none of his performances have had that signature (a word he likes) stamp of Raising Arizona, Vampire’s Kiss, Wild at Heart, Peggy Sue Got Married, or Leaving Las Vegas.
His personal life has been equally frustrating.
His story book marriage to actress Patricia Arquette ended in divorce last year, and no sooner were the tabloids making hay of that, then he started a high profile romance with Lisa Marie Presley, which too ended abruptly.
But surprise, surprise, she accompanies him to the premiere of Windtalkers in Hollywood.
At the junket a week earlier he won’t talk about his personal life, but he offered a metaphor.
“There’s an expression in Buddhism called ‘dukkha’ which means when you want something so bad, all wanting causes suffering. So when you let go and you’re not wanting anymore, you don’t suffer.”
So he’s given up on relationships?
“I wouldn’t say I’ve given up. I’ve just let go.”
Even when promoting Leaving Las Vegas (to enhance his Oscar chances), he refused to talk about his personal life.
“I believe an actor should be mysterious and enigmatic. If you give away too much of yourself, it’s hard for audiences to fantasize about the character you play. I am an actor, that’s what I do. When the movie finishes, my job is over.”
But didn’t he owe it to his fans?
“All I owe the public is the work I give them. Talking about an actor’s private life, I think, is an invasion of a privacy. Exposing everything about a person’s private life can be dangerous. I don’t owe anyone information as to what I’m doing, what my relationship to my wife and with my child is like. That is private, and I think it should be.”
Even when he married Patricia Arquette in l995, there was no media frenzy — no sale of pictures to the tabloids.
Asked how married life was treating him, he angrily replied, “This is all I’m going to say on the subject. We’re very happy, it’s going very well, and that’s it.”
Patricia, on the other hand, was always forthcoming — that’s her nature — even to the point of admitting that it was she, not he, who proposed marriage.
A year later he too had mellowed.
“Marriage,” he told me, “is better than I expected it to be. There’s a lot there that I didn’t know would be there. When we got married, we were both caught up in the infatuation of the dream of love. Now we are also aware of the mutual respect and support we can give each other. I mean, she’s my best friend. She’s helped me clarify things in my own mind, about how to approach my work. I hope I’ve done the same for her. It’s a very supportive and loving relationship.”
Unfortunately in Hollywood love is ephemeral and nothing lasts forever.
Does he still believe in marriage?
Somberly he responds, “I do believe in marriage, yeah, and I believe in family. It’s always been extremely important to me. I still have that dream in my mind.”
Is it more difficult to maintain if you’re in this business?
“It is very difficult, to have a busy career and to be able to spend a great deal of time with family. That balance has always been the challenge for me.”
When he gets home, is he able to shut it off?
“I think I’ve gotten to a place where I can shut it off and go home and live my life. It’s really important not to take the character home with me. At one time I might have done that, but now I make a point of being home on time so I can be with my family.”
Looking back at his relationships, did he ever find love in his life?
“Oh yeah, I’ve had incredible moments of love in my life. But love is an incredible emotion — if you have it you also have pain. I call it the rainbow emotion. It’s got all the colors in it”
Is he a spiritual person?
“Spirituality is very important to me.”
After his divorce last year from Patricia Arquette , he married Elvis’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley
And if that isn’t occasion enough for rejoicing, he has a new movie out — Adaptation –in which he gives a stunning performance, certainly his best since winning an Oscar seven years ago for Leaving Las Vegas.
At his press conference for the movie he’s obviously pleased that he now has something to show for his critics, including Sean Penn, who accused him of selling out.
In the film he plays identical twins and he’s magnificent in both roles.
A couple of months ago I chided him for being one of only a handful of actors who had failed to earn a second nomination after winning the Oscar, not because his talent had diminished, but because of his choices (The Rock, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Con Air.)
He defended himself by arguing, “I’ve seen a lot of so-called serious actors win an award and then sort of serious themselves right out of the business, and the next thing you know they’re supporting action stars to keep their careers alive. I’m just trying to keep acting.”
Now Adaptation changes everything.
And it heralds the return of Hollywood’s most adventurous actor giving a signature (a word he likes) performance reminiscent of his work in Raising Arizona, Vampire’s Kiss, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Wild at Heart.
In the latter he played a Elvis Presley acolyte.
And now he’s gone and married the King’s only daughter.
How does that make him feel?
Obviously uncomfortable with the question, he replies, “I can understand why you’d want to ask, and I want to be as gracious and kind as I can be, but in terms of my marriage I want to protect that and try to keep it as private as possible.”
He’s always held that talking about an actor’s private life is an invasion of privacy and exposing everything can be dangerous for an actor.
“I don’t owe anyone any information as to what I’m doing, what my relationship to my wife and with my child is like. That is private, and I think it should be.”
But then he adds, “With regard to Elvis, like many people I’ve always considered him a great singer. Unfortunately there’s a sort of tabloid mentality to blow things out of proportion, to make it sound that there’s some sort of obsession, which is not the case. They might be confusing me with people who have rooms full of collectibles. I don’t have one collectible of Elvis.
“Where the confusion comes in is because I did Wild at Heart. When I did Wild at Heart I was inspired by painters and artists. At the time I was fascinated with Andy Warhol, who would take those great icons and do those collages of them. I own a Jams Dean one. So when I did Wild at Heart, I approached David Lynch (the director) and told him I wanted this to be my Andy Warhol performance. At the time every actor had done James Dean or a version of James Dean or Marlon Brando. So I thought it would be unique or quite funny to be Elvis. The truth of the matter is, it was more my Andy Warhol performance than my Elvis performance, and had I known I was going to marry his daughter, I would have played it as Andy Warhol, period.”
Not only is he now part of a rock’n’roll royalty, he also happens to be part of a Hollywood dynasty, the Coppola clan.
Not just his uncle Francis, but his cousins Sophia and Roman, all directors.
And Sophia’s husband Spike Jonze is the director of Adaptation
As if four directors in one family weren’t enough, Nicolas has joined their ranks. and his maiden effort Sonny, in which James Franco (who played Spider-Man’s best friend) portrays a male prostitute, opens next month.
Does he see himself as part of a dynasty?
“I really don’t see us that way. I’m just lucky to be part of a family that happens to be creative. And that’s exciting.”
Did he and Spike ever talk about it?
“Despite our family ties we never really got into that. It felt very much to me like mutual respect, artist to artist.”
A couple of months ago he described Spike as, “almost like a micro manager. After the second day I said, ‘Spike, here’s the remote control. You push the buttons. I am not in charge of anything here. Just tell me where to go, and I’ll go there.’ It was exciting because I had no idea what I did in that movie.”
This time he’s even more generous.
“I think he’s totally unique, a genuinely original voice, and someone who’s not trying to be weird for weirdness’s sake. I believe he’s tapping into some other level that seems completely uncharted, something completely pure. Working with Spike and Charlie (Kaufman, his writer-collaborator) we were really on our own. No one interfered with us. It was as though we were in our own bubble, whereas on other films where there’s so much money involved, there’s always some kind of involvement from the powers that be. On this there was none.”
The film not only challenged him (he plays two diametrically opposite twins) it challenges the audience, by offering multilayered time jumping themes
Was he moved by film’s idea that it doesn’t matter if you get love back. What matters is that you love someone?
“I think we can all learn from it. I know I have. I’ve used it in my own life. It’s a very spiritual way to live. As simple as it sounds, it’s an important way to live.”
Because Lisa Marie is deeply involved in Scientology, will he take that journey as well?
Again he becomes very defensive.
“I don’t want to say anything against any religion. I believe everyone has the right to believe whatever they want, and my own path is my own path. I couldn’t put a name on it. I just know that I’m trying to be a loving man and live my life so that others will treat me the way I treat them. And without going into too much detail as to who my spiritual teachers are, I kind of take a bit bit from everything and work it out on my own.”
Obviously there was no point in telling him that Scientology is not a religion!
The brothers he plays in the movie barely tolerate each other.
How does he get along with his brothers (one of whom also tried directing a movie a few years ago)?
”My brothers and I are are very close. We grew up together in Long Beach, California, and they will always hold a very sacred part of my heart.”
Do they, like in the movie, invade his creative space?
“Oh, sure, they’ve affected my work; they’ve affected the way I portray my characters. They’re part of my memory system. I draw upon whatever feeling I have from them.”
To play one of the twins, he apparently gained quite a bit of weight.
How easy was it to lose?
Surprisingly, again, he becomes defensive.
“I don’t really want to talk about it because it’s like a magician giving away the secrets to his tricks. But by the same token I really think the idea of destroying one’s body in the name of art is a little psychotic. It’s been done a lot. When De Niro did it, it was fantastic. It made everyone go Wow! But people have done it over and over again since then. Now there’s this concept among actors that you’re really an actor if you gain weight for a part. ‘I destroyed my health, right? I’m a real actor.’
“I just didn’t want to go there, and I told Spike, ‘Look, I really take care of my body. I try to eat right. I get my daily exercise. I don’t want to be one of those self-indulgent actors that’s going to destroy himself for a role.’
“And that’s not what you need to do. That’s not acting. Olivier wouldn’t have done it, and he’s one of my heroes. I thought, why not use the craft of acting to feel the weight, to feel the low esteem, and it worked. I put that suit on, and I just went Whoa! I spent 750 hours in that suit .and it was heavy, and it made me feel like doggie doo, and that was it. That’s all I needed to get to the character.”
Olivier of course was best known as an actor in the theatre. Would he consider doing a play?
“Maybe one day, but I’ve never been interested in theatre because I always thought film was more honest. When I tell stage actors that, they think I’m out of my mind until I remind them about the close-up. The closeup puts the camera right in your face and if you’re feeling something, you’re going to see it, and if you’re not, you’re also going to see it. You can’t cheat or lie through a close up. That’s why I’ve always been more interested in film.”
He seems to be a workaholic. Is it difficult for him to relax?
“Funny you should ask, because recently I visited Thomas Jefferson’s ancestral home Monticello in Virginia, and I was inspired by his example. He felt any minute wasted was a sin. I don’t aspire to be as great as Thomas Jefferson, but I have a little of that drive in me, not to waste my time and hopefully other people’s time. That’s why when the Screen Actors Guild strike was looming, I thought I’ve got to do something so I thought of directing a movie.”
But why something as dark as Sonny?
“It was a movie I was going to star in about fifteen years ago. Barbet Schroeder was set to direct, but then for some reason at the eleventh hour he decided not to do it. The material stayed with me, and I always thought, ‘Why don’t I read it again. Maybe it might be something I could direct.’ It’s a very edgy family drama with a throughline that is very heartbreaking. I knew as a director I wanted to do something small and different, and if I direct again, I will continue to make that type of film, small tragic stories about people. I don’t think I would direct an action film.”
Why does he say “if”?
“It’s something I don’t want to definitely commit to just yet. I want to see what happens.”
And his Italian heritage, how important is that?
“My father’s very proud to be Italian, and that seems to be the force in my family. Italian culture was always around us, the opera, the wine, the art. You could say I grew up in an Italian American culture, but I’m only half Italian American; the other half is German American. My mother is all German.”
Even though she was born and lived in South Africa.