Coming from a family of auteurs, Nicolas Cage had a lot of influence from showbiz growing up, as he spent most of his time binging movies. Considering he was best friends with Sean Penn’s late brother Chris Penn, the two, alongside Sheen, spent much of their time watching movies.
While this contributed to Cage’s love for the medium, one of these sessions served as a pivotal moment that shaped the Vampire’s Kiss star’s acting career, thanks to Sheen’s father. Reflecting on Martin Sheen’s words, Cage deemed it the best professional advice of his life.
Martin Sheen’s Words Sticked with Nicolas Cage
Being a notable actor himself, who has been a recipient of many accolades, Martin Sheen gave an important piece of advice to a young Cage, which he came to appreciate more with time. During one of his visits to Charlie Sheen’s home alongside Penn and Martin Sheen, who had just finished working on Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now, the Renfield star recalled Sheen telling him.
The only thing that matters with filmmaking is if you like where you were and who you were working with.
While at the time, Cage explained he was too young to fully grasp what the Apocalypse Now star meant, as he delved deeper into the movie business, “his words always came back to me”.
He said:
At the time I was too young to understand but as I grew older and started making more movies his words always came back to me.
Sheen’s words have now become a mantra for the actor, as he deemed it “the best advice” he has received in his professional career.
Breaking Bad Influenced Nicolas Cage’s Decision To Do Spider-Man Noir
Despite being absent in Across the Spider-Verse, NicolasCage is set to return to voicing Spider-Man Noir in the character’s own animated series. Speaking with The New Yorker, the actor elaborated that Bryan Cranston’s Breaking Bad motivated him to take the TV gig.
Recounting one of Cranston’s scenes from the hit show, in which he stares at a suitcase “thinking, ‘What’s in it? Do I do this? Don’t I do it?’”, the actor explained, “We don’t have time to do that in movies”.
I saw Bryan Cranston in ‘Breaking Bad’ stare at a suitcase for half the episode. Just him on the floor looking at a suitcase thinking, ‘What’s in it? Do I do this? Don’t I do it?’ I thought, ‘We don’t have time to do that in movies.’ So that to me seemed like an opportunity to open it up a little.
Although the 2010s saw the actor taking many less-than-stellar gigs, which was a result of his financial crunch, he is now back to following Sheen’s advice.
