Nicolas Cage is a star that rarely disappoints, he is very sincere with his work and keeps out of headlines that do not concern his work. We have seen and loved him in movies like Kick-Ass, Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent where he played an exaggerated version of himself. He is also the Noir Spider-Man and starred in the recent film The Old Way released on 6th January 2023. The actor has been doing interviews and promotions for this new release.
Nicolas Cage talks about how he chooses his scripts.
The Ghost Rider star gave an interview to Screenrant when asked how he brings a unique voice to his characters and makes them so memorable. The actor humbly replied saying
“I see myself as a student of film performance and I need to challenge myself. And I need to find things in my past, in my memories, in my imagination, in my dreams to get to a place where I don’t feel I’m acting. I want to have it feel authentic so that the audience is with me. And what I will say is I’m a student and I want to find characters that challenge me. Maybe they don’t all work. But maybe when they do work, I will have learned something. Or I will have learned something even if they don’t work.”
It is very profound and inspirational as to how the actor constantly dedicates himself to his work and builds his craft. Even after so many years, Nicolas Cage approaches a film like a student and not a veteran actor who already knows his way around. Even at this stage in his life he never lets himself get comfortable with himself and keeps pushing his limits. The Old Way actor continues.
“The idea is to never stay comfortable, and that’s what keeps people going, I think. I even asked David Bowie once, “How did you do it? How did you keep reinventing yourself?” And the wise man said, “Well, I just never got comfortable with what I was doing.” And I took those words to heart. So when I have a project in front of me, I have to know I can bring something. But to answer your question, where does it come from? And that’s also a bit of a mystery. There’s some magic to it. I don’t know.”
The veteran actor is known for doing some very cool films like Spider-Man into the Spider-verse, Kick-Ass and many more, the current movie falls under the Western genre which is huge in America and has been done to death, so did someone like Nicolas Cage choose to do this.
“Yeah. I’m with you about the Western. I grew up watching Once Upon a Time in the West, and my favorite western performance is Charles Bronson as Harmonica. I was always fascinated by his ability to convey so much and do so little. And there was an enigmatic, spooky quality to that character. When they sent me this script, that’s immediately who I thought of. And I like characters that raise more questions than answers.”
One cannot agree, a good western can hit the right spots if done correctly. The most important reason why Cage took this film is because the character of Colton Briggs challenged him, and that what matters to the man.
About the film, The Old Way
The story is about a retired Gun slinger, Colton Briggs, who is forced to take arms as a young group of rebels decide to create trouble for his family. Briggs’ partner is his young daughter Brooke. They both travel the town to find who killed her mother and his wife and disrupted the happy family.
The film is a lot of fun and gets a lot of laughs from the audience, many are calling it Cage’s career-best performance. For most the father-daughter relationship stands out and provides a much-needed freshness to the Western. It is the heart and soul of the movie and holds the audience together. The humor does not seem forced or dated and helps in keeping the viewers engaged throughout the movie.
The Old Way was released on 6th January 2023 in the USA, it will release on Lionsgate Play on 13th January.
Source: Screenrant