Nicolas Cage has had a whirlwind of a career. Whether he’s terrifying fans by playing a sociopath who switches faces with his enemy in Face/Off or making them fall in love with him by finding his stolen pig in Pig, the man does not shy away from taking on a wide range of roles. While he has made hits that have given him Oscar attention like in Raising Arizona and Adaptation, he has also made and spoken of making bad movies in recent years, some which have even gotten the video-on-demand treatment. Even if the critics or fans have “marginalized” Nicolas Cage’s career, he still shares love for at least eight of his recent movies.
In Nicolas Cage’s new movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, he plays a fictionalized version of himself — an actor loaded with debt and a dream of wanting to work with Quentin Tarantino. At 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, Massive Talent is already gaining attention with glowing reviews. But, Nicolas Cage has not always had the best luck with his recent projects, taking on a lot of video-on-demand films that have been critically panned and obscured in the shadows. Collider spoke with Nicolas Cage about this “marginalized” portion of his career while talking to him about his critically-acclaimed new movie, with Cage noting,
I think I’ve done some of the best work in the last 10 years of my entire life and I put ‘Massive Talent’ in that period, which has been, in some ways, marginalized by certain folks in the media. But I think I’ll put ‘Pig’ and ‘Massive Talent’ and ‘Mandy’ and ‘Color Out Of Space’ and ‘Bad Lieutenant’ and ‘Joe’ and ‘The Trust’ and ‘The Runner’ up against anything I did in the first 30 years. But in all that time, in the 43 years I’ve been doing it, ‘Massive Talent’ is hands down the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
To note, movies like Pig and Mandy were critical successes for Nicolas Cage and gave him the opportunity to bring captivating performances to audiences. The other films the Academy Award winner mentioned like Color of Space, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and Joe also found audiences, giving Cage a mix of genres to explore and a range of different characters to play.
The Trust and The Runner, on the other hand, were not so successful in that they were released video-on-demand with mixed to negative reviews from critics. But despite the up and downs of these, Nicolas Cage couldn’t be more proud of the work he has done and given us in all eight of these movies, including his latest The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, which he also touched on in the interview.
There’s value in doing things that scare you in order to overcome any fear that you have. Nicolas Cage has had a number of hardships he has had to tackle like trying to remain debt-free like the character he plays and the recent passing of his mother. Cage has previously spoken of being terrified about playing himself on the big screen. Since this version is not exactly him, he has to play what director Tom Gormican thinks of him. It’s like playing a fan’s parody version of yourself. But, this movie looks to be the role of a lifetime for the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola. After all, he said as long as what you reach out toward does not harm you or anyone else, it is important to embrace your fear.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent will end up being a tribute to Nicolas Cage’s most outlandish performances. Expect to see over-the-top facial expressions and yelling as he recreates his classic characters from films like Con Air and Face/Off. This movie should be a dream for every Nicolas Cage fanatic out there. Here’s hoping fans pour into theaters even if Nicolas Cage does not want to embrace the fear of watching himself.
Be sure to cash in your ticket to see The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in theaters April 22nd. To better prepare yourself, here are three Nicolas Cage movies to see first.