Massive Talent: How Nic Cage Created Nicky Cage

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is now playing in theatres, and the movie and its press tour have been one giant love letter to Nicolas Cage. The Academy Award-winning actor plays a version of himself in the movie, which sees Pedro Pascal playing a billionaire Nic Cage fan who hires the actor “Nick Cage” to attend his birthday party. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Cage, who talked about his villiianous alter ago, “Nicky Cage.”

“Well, Nicky, I’m glad you point Nicky out because first he didn’t even have a name,” Cage explained. “I had to give him a name. Because I thought the character was worthy of his own name. They were talking about Cameron Poe [Cage’s Con Air character] for young so-called Nick Cage. And I said, ‘But that’s Cameron Poe, that’s a character, that’s not Nick Cage.’ But if you wanna see young Nick Cage, look at my presentation on the Wogan show. When I was promoting Wild at Heart. That guy is irreverent. That guy is arrogant. That guy is obnoxious.”

Cage added, “And that guy is exactly right. And what’s more, we’re gonna call him Nicky, because he’s really the villain in the movie. He’s the one that’s trying to, he’s the devil on the shoulder. That’s saying, ‘You gotta be a movie star. You can’t be doing these little art films these independent movies. You’re a star.’ That guy was right before I had started doing the adventure films, like The Rock and Con Air. And at that time, that was important to me to do those movies because, I grew up watching Charles Bronson and Sean Connery and Dr. No, and I wanted to see if I could do it. I wanted to see if I could make an adventure film, because everyone thought I couldn’t do it. So, when you say ‘Can’t,’ you wanna say, ‘I can.’ And that’s where that energy came from. But I’m not like that anymore, I’m much more happy making quiet movies, like Pig or Leaving Las Vegas. My independent spirit is towards Indie Dramas, those are my roots. And as hopefully you’ve noticed, I keep making them.” 

ComicBook.com‘s Patrick Cavanaugh gave The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent a 4 out of 5 in his review and called it “a charming and authentic celebration of Nicolas Cage,” which is exactly why we’ve been brushing up on the actor’s filmography. You should check out our Month of Cage streaming guide.

Cage has been answering a lot of questions this month in honor of his upcoming movie. Last week, it was revealed that the actor wants to be in a Muppet movie. During Cage’s Reddit AMA, he also shared that he wanted David Lynch to appear in Massive Talent, and said he’d be down to make a Face/Off 2. One fan asked if Cage had any dream roles, and the actor revealed he’d like to play Jules Verne’s, Captain Nemo. 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is now playing in theatres.