Longlegs: Maika Monroe, Osgood Perkins and More Share First On-Set Reactions to Nicolas Cage’s Titular Terror

Nicolas Cage is in rare form in Longlegs. Back in November 2022, reports emerged that Osgood Perkins (Gretel & Hansel) would be directing a sinister script that he penned himself, one which told the tale of this titular satanic serial killer. Three months later, Cage joined Longlegs as both the film’s star and producer. Filming ran for a quick six weeks in Vancouver, leaving many of the specifics about Longlegs‘ plot to be kept under wraps. This particularly included Cage as Longlegs himself, as zero set photos of him as the nominal antagonist surfaced nor were any freeze-framable glimpses of his face visible in teaser trailers.

Longlegs Stars Reveal First Reactions to Nic Cage’s Character

The pulse-pounding terror permeated throughout the Longlegs production when Nic Cage walked on set.

Speaking to ComicBook, Longlegs leading star Maika Monroe revealed that the first time she met Cage was when they shared their first scene together in the film.

“I didn’t meet him. I didn’t see anything at all of what Longlegs looked like,” Monroe recalled. “The first time that I saw him was uh when Oz called action and I walked onto the set. It was incredibly shocking and haunting and exhilarating.”

Co-star Blair Underwood had some time to prepare himself but still was left speechless when he encountered the titular terror.

“I’d heard rumblings. I had been working a couple of days before he came on set, but I had heard rumblings of his approach to the character. I wasn’t shocked but terrified nonetheless,” Underwood said. “So much of this film either stylistically or the content feels familiar, but then it turns into something that you don’t expect. It turns into something very different. Then even when I saw what he was doing and how he brought the character to the screen was really some remarkable stuff.”

Director Osgood Perkins was the most privy to Longlegs, as he had worked on the character’s design from the very beginning.

“Meanwhile, I’d seen it every step of the way. Every little thing is chosen between Nic and myself or costumes and myself. There’s a lot of conversations that go to building the thing,” Perkins shared. “By the time I see the whole package put together, it’s the summation of a bunch of efforts and a bunch of hits and misses. Things that have been shaded and sharpened and dulled and crafted.

“But then having him walk onto the set for the first time, on his first day, we were shooting the snowy exterior at Lee’s childhood home, walking alongside him and just watching everybody watching him appear and manifest and roll in, roll up,” Perkins continued. “It was really good especially because a lot of the people working on this movie are very young people. There’s like this whoa quality. ‘Huh?! What?!’ Because it was that gnarly. And he’s Nicholas Cage too. Geiger counters are going off just by his natural presence.”

Longlegs slithers into theaters this Friday, July 12th.