Nicolas Cage doesn’t “fully understand” why he is often made into memes.
The ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ star hasn’t got his head around the “fascination” with his “face or facial expressions” that make it such good viral content.
In an interview with the April issue of GQ magazine – for which he is the cover star, shot by Jason Nocito – the 58-year-old actor said: “I still don’t really fully understand what the fascination is with my face or facial expressions that happen in these memes. I’m like, well, but why? Just like, ‘What is it?’
However, Cage admits that he is largely fine with it, saying: “You can’t go against that which is.”
One of his most expressive roles – one that Nicholas almost didn’t take – as Cher’s Loretta Castorini love interest Ronny Cammareri is now a “favourite” of his credits, especially for what it did for the Italian American community.
He said: “Now looking at it, it’s definitely one of my favourite movies I made. Plus, I like the presentation of the Italian American as a loving family. Not just always the gangster.”
Cage – who was two sons Weston, 31, and Kal-El, 16 – was left with money problems while coping with his father August Coppola’s death at 75 – who was the brother of the ‘Godfather’ trilogy director Francis Ford Coppola – so the ‘National Treasure’ star was willing to do movies “back to back” to support himself and his ailing mother, Joy Vogelsang, who died last year at 85.
Despite criticism about quality over quantity, he insists he was always cared about what roles he did.
He adamantly said: “When I was doing four movies a year, back to back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all. They didn’t work, all of them. Some of them were terrific, like Mandy, but some of them didn’t work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that. That I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring.”
After getting out of debt, Cage is planning on being “extremely selective” about what he signs on for.
He said: “I’m just going to focus on being extremely selective, as selective as I can be. I would like to make every movie as if it were my last.”
Read the full interview, “Nicolas Cage Can Explain It All” by Gabriella Paiella, in GQ’s April issue and on GQ.com.