I Always Add A Year To Myself, So I'm Prepared For My Next Birthday. So When I Was 39, I Was Already 40.

-Nicolas Cage

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I Always Add A

Nicolas Cage

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I Always Add A Year To Myself, So I'm Prepared For My Next Birthday. So When I Was 39, I Was Already 40.

Topic

Years

Age

Add

I'm A Seeker. I'm Very Much A Believer In Science. But I Do Think There Are Times When Science And Mysticism Intersect.

Thinking

Believer

Seekers

Film Has Lost Something In The Translation To High Tech. It's Become So Super-real. It's With Digital This And Stereo That, And Everything's Like A Cd.

Real

Cds

Digital

I Guess It Would Fall Into The Stalker Category More Or Less. I Was Being Stalked By A Mime - Silent But Maybe Deadly. Somehow, This Mime Would Appear On The Set Of 'bringing Out The Dead' And Start Doing Strange Things. I Have No Idea How It Got Past Security. Finally, The Producers Took Some Action And I Haven't Seen The Mime Since. But It Was Definitely Unsettling.

Fall

Past

Ideas

With Every Action Oriented Or Adventure Film, There's Going To Be A Moment When Every Actor Becomes A Stuntman And Every Stuntman Becomes An Actor. You Try To Do As Much Of It As You Can, But Inevitably The Studio Wants You To Finish The Movie. So You've Got To Slow Down And You're Really Got To Defer To Your Team To Make Sure You Do.

Team

Adventure

Trying

I Just Want To Keep Making Movies That Hopefully Makes Some Kids Smile.

Kids

Want

Hopefully

It's Amazing Marrying Someone Who Wants Nothing To Do With Hollywood.

Hollywood

Want

Marrying

I Hit The Ground Running, Without A Lot Of Training, So I Had To Do Whatever I Could Do To Survive As A Professional, And If That Meant Being That Character 24/7 And Acting Out, I Was Going To Do That. I Lived Those Characters, I Brought Them Home With Me.

Running

Character

Home

Having Been A Father For 19 Years I Realise Fatherhood Has Changed Me.

Father

Years

Changed

I Wasn't Any Good At Romnace. I Was A Total Nerd. My Thing Is, I Was Just Too Romantic. I Was The Romantic Goofball. I Wasn't Cynical Enough Or Harsh Enough. I Cared Too Much, So I Always Made A Fool Out Of Myself.

Cynical

Nerd

Too Much

How Do You Rebel In A Family Of Rebels?

Rebel

I Cry A Lot. My Emotions Are Very Close To My Surface. I Don't Want To Hold Anything In So It Festers And Turns Into Pus - A Pustule Of Emotion That Explodes Into A Festering Cesspool Of Depression.

Depression

Want

Emotion

Nobody Ever Thinks Clearly At The Airport.

Thinking

Airports

Family Man

How Do You Rebel In A Family Of Rebels? That's The Age-old Question. I Guess I Could Have By Not Going Into The Arts, But The Thing Is, I Couldn't Do Anything Else.

Art

Age

Rebel

The End Of The World Is On People's Minds. We Have The Power To Destroy Or Save Ourselves, But The Question Is What Do You Do With That Responsibility.

Responsibility

People

Mind

Film Acting Is One Of The Only Industries Where You're Criticized For Working Hard. In Any Other Industry, It's Considered A Quality And Something To Behold.

Quality

Acting

Film

I'm Not A Trained Actor. I'm Someone Who Is Autodidactic And Learned On My Own.

Actors

My Own

I Think That 'ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance' Was Mentally Taxing, If Only Because I Had To Go To A Christmas Party Shortly After I Had Wrapped Photography In Romania At Two In The Morning As The Ghost Rider. The Invitation Had A Christmas Ornament On It With Ghost Rider's Face On It As A Tree.

Photography

Morning

Party

God Bless The Popcorn Film. Especially Movies Where You Can Take The Kids, Because I Remember Looking Forward To Seeing These Movies With My Parents, And If I Can Give That Back, I'm Gonna Do It.

Kids

Giving

Parent

I Loved 'fantasia' As A Kid Because It Filled Me With Wonder, Enchantment And Awe. It Was My First Real Introduction Into Classical Music. It Was Totally Inspiring To Me.

Real

Kids

Enchantment

Children, To Me, Are Of The Utmost Importance. They're Really The Future, Aren't They?

Children

Importance

I Do Like To Move And Get Physical In My Movies.

Moving

I Always See America As Really Belonging To The Native Americans. Even Though I'm American, I Still Feel Like A Visitor In My Own Country.

Country

Native American

Visitors

I'll Speak For Myself, But There's A Lot Of Humor To Be Found In Sarcasm And Darkness. You Talk To Any Paramedic, They Survive By Developing A Pretty Off-kilter Sense Of Humor.

Sarcasm

Darkness

Sense Of Humor

If You Get A Chance, Whenever You're Traveling, Do Go To The Local Boutique Comic Book Shop And Don't Buy Your Comics Online 'cause Those Guys Are Going To Go Extinct, In A Minute Here, And We Want To Be Able To Have Those Experiences With Our Kids.

Book

Kids

Guy

It's Important To Keep The Eccentric Spirit Alive, Because When That Goes, The Work Will Go.

Important

Alive

Eccentric

You Get Dinged For Wanting To Do A Comedy, Then Wanting To Do A Big-budget Action Film, And Then Wanting To Do An Indie. But You Can't Let Other People Trying To Label You Get In The Way Of Trying To Do Something Artistically.

People

Trying

Labels

When I Won The Oscar, I Made A Point Of Actively Going Against That And Doing Adventure Films Like 'con Air' And 'gone In 60 Seconds,' Not What Would Be Expected.

Adventure

Air

Would Be

I Know What It's Like To Meet Someone You Admire And Have Them Be A Complete Jerk.

Jerk

Admire

Knows

I Really Think It's Important That My Beliefs Don't Impinge Upon What You Get From The Movie. It's Your Opinion That Matters And It's Far More Interesting Than Mine.

Thinking

Interesting

Important

I Would Like To Find A Way To Embrace What Led Zeppelin Did, In Filmmaking.

Zeppelins

Way

Embrace

I've Been Lucky To Work With Some Of The Most Creative People And It's True That I Enjoy Filmmaking And I'm An Enthusiast.

People

Creative

Lucky

First Of All The Criteria That I Have That Goes Into Any Career Decision Is Whether Or Not I Have The Life Experience, Emotional Resources To Play The Part Truthfully Or The Imagination. Second, Would Be The Director.

Emotional

Play

Careers

One Of The First Signs Of Being Depressed Is That You Lose Interest In Things. That's Why I Think It Is Important To Stay Passionate.

Passion

Thinking

Important

That Was One Of The Reasons Why I Wanted To Tell The Story Of Colin Price. I Saw Someone In This Fictionalized Political Character That Was Trying To Do Something Important For His City. He Meant Well, But Then You See That The Human Flaws Had Really Derailed His Past. It Seems To Be Happening More And More In Our Country. I Wanted To Hold A Mirror Up To That.

Country

Character

Past

I Happen To Still Like Really Dark, Dramatic, Fractured Characters. They're The Reason I Got Into Movies.

Character

Dark

Dramatic

My Mother Was A Dancer, So I Like To Use The Body As Part Of The Instrument Of Acting.

Mother

Dancer

Acting

Mike Myers As Austin Powers Makes Me Laugh - That Was Genius - And Daffy Duck Makes Me Laugh, But I Like Odd Behavior. I Don't Like Hip Dialogue And One-liners And All That Sort Of Cool, Sophomoric Comedy. It's Just Not For Me.

Ducks

Laughing

Daffy Duck

Actors Have An Opportunity To Use Storytelling As A Way To Solve Pain.

Pain

Opportunity

Use

I Wanted To Make An Image For Myself As An Outlaw Type. A Kind Of Rock 'n' Roll Sensibility.

Rocks

Rock N Roll

Kind

Snakes Are Sometimes Perceived As Evil, But They Are Also Perceived As Medicine. If You Look At An Ambulance, There's The Two Snakes On The Side Of The Ambulance. The Caduceus, Or The Staff Of Hermes, There's The Two Snakes Going Up It, Which Means That The Venom Can Also Be Healing.

Healing

Mean

Snakes

My House Is Basically A Trailer. I Live A Circus Lifestyle. I'm Always Moving. It's Not Always Easy For People That Live With Me, But That's The Path I Chose.

Moving

People

House

I Don't Want A Perfect Character, I Want A Character Who Has, As Strange As It Sounds, Some Humanity, Some Flaws, Some Needs.

Character

Perfect

Humanity

I Got A Little Tired Of Movies Where I Had To Shoot People. I Got To Thinking About The Power Of Film And What That Power Is. The Power Is In Fact That It Really Can Change People's Minds.

Tired

Thinking

People

I Have A Love-hate Relationship With New Orleans, Which Is The Strongest Sort Of Relationship. I've Had Some Extraordinary, Beautiful, Poetic Experiences In This City And I've Had Some Terrible Experiences In This City. I'm Drawn To New Orleans, In Many Ways Feel I Grew Up In New Orleans, Even Though I'm From The West.

Beautiful

Hate

New Orleans

Peter Fonda Is The Reason I Became A Motorcyclist. I Saw Easy Rider And I Bought A Motorcycle The Next Day, And I Rode It All The Way From La To San Francisco.

Next Day

San Francisco

Motorcycle

I'm Going To Steal The Declaration Of Independence.

Independence

National Treasure

Stealing

I'm Very Impressed With 'drive.'

Impressed

It's A Family That's Loaded With Grudges And Passion. We Come From A Long Line Of Robbers And Highwaymen In Italy, You Know. Killers, Even.

Passion

Long

Killers

God Bless My Father, But He Always Spoke In This Continental, Literary Accent, Probably Because He Was A Professor Of Comparative Literature And He Made The Decision To Speak With Distinction.

Father

Decision

Literature

Guy Pearce Is Very Precise And Clear About Understanding The Rhythm And The Music Of A Scene.

Guy

Understanding

Scene

Celebrity Is A Word I Take Great Umbrage With. I'm Actively Anti-celebrity.

We've Become So Glorified In The Movie-star System That It's Become This Artificial Royalty. The Truth Is That We're Circus Clowns.

Stars

Complaining

Circus

Mel Blanc Is A Hero Because Of What He Could Do With His Voice For All The Looney Tunes, The Warner Brothers Cartoons, To Be The Voice Of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. To Me, He's A Great Actor.

Brother

Hero

Pigs

I'm Not Afraid To Play Ugly - Look At 'adaptation.' I Looked Like A Turd That A Cat Had Coughed Up.

Cat

Play

Looks

With The Advent Of This Kind Of Tmz Culture, It Sadly Seems To Have Infiltrated The Vanguard Of Film Commentary. I See These Reviews Sometimes Where I Think, Well, You Have A Right To Say Whatever You Want About My Work, And I Will Listen Whether It's Good Or Bad And See If There's Something That I Might Work With, But Personal Issues Don't Have A Place In Film Commentary.

Thinking

Issues

Culture

Someone Like Vincent Price Or Somebody Like Christopher Lee, They Never Won An Award, And It Doesn't Matter. They're Cool.

Awards

Matter

Science Fiction Is A Way That I Can Go Into The Abstract, Go Into The Imagination, And Audiences Are Still Willing To Go Along For The Ride.

Imagination

Fiction

Way

I'm Sticking My Tongue Out In Scenes To Try To Make That Work In 3d. I'm Thinking I'll Try To Get My Tongue All The Way Out To The Second Row Of The Audience.

Thinking

Trying

Way

Feel Like Real Time Unfolding. It's Going To Smack Of Reality And Feel As Real As It Can ... The Buildings Themselves Aren't (shown) ... The Movie's About What Happened Amongst This Handful Of Men When The Buildings Came Down.

Real

Men

Building

Tattoos To Me Are The Outward Symbol Of The Inward Change Within My Soul.

Tattoo

Soul

Inward

I Try To Do As Many Stunts As They'll Let Me Do. I Think It's Important For An Audience To Feel That The Actor's Really Doing It.

Thinking

Important

Trying

I Was Always Shocked When I Went To The Doctor's Office And They Did My X-ray And Didn't Find That I Had Eight More Ribs Than I Should Have Or That My Blood Was The Color Green.

Doctors

Eight

Blood

Without Impending On Your Own Personal Choice, There Are Going To Be Those That Wear The Hat Of Religion And Those That Wear The Hat Of Science. I Still Don't Really Understand Why They Can't Wear Both Hats, Because Personally, I Think That They Go Beautifully Together.

Thinking

Choices

Together

Acting Is Always At The Core Of My Life, But I'm Also Excited About Producing. I'm Excited About Directing, And I Have A Life In The Filmmaking World, And So I Want To Explore All Aspects Of It, Not Just The Acting, But Acting Is The Root.

Roots

Acting

World

One Of The Great Bonuses Of Being A Film Actor Is That I Get To Go To Different Places, Meet Inspiring People And Learn Different Things. So All Those Details Add Up.

People

Details

Different

My Father Always Used To Say To Me, It Doesn’t Matter What The Profession Is, But If They’re The Best In Their Field, It Will Always Be Fascinating To Watch.

Dad

Father

Watches

And What I Like About It Is It Makes Me Happy And I Think It Makes A Lot Of People Happy To Go To The Movies And To Not Think About The Problems Of The Day Or The Problems Of Tomorrow Or The Yesterday And Just Go On For The Ride And Have The Fun Of Losing Oneself In A Fantasy.

Movie

Fun

Thinking

I Bought A Yamaha-1 And I Was Doing 180 Miles Per Hour Home On The 405 And That's Really, Really Crazy But I Did It.

Crazy

Home

Yamaha

When You're Playing A Spirit From Another Dimension, You Really Can Do Anything And Get As Abstract As You Want And Still Have A Context That Will Work Within The Movie. I Wanted Ghost Rider To Move In A Way Where It Would Be Like A Bad Dream. I Thought About Cobra Snakes, And The Way That They Will Show You Their Backs And Sway In A Rhythmic Motion And Almost Lull You To Sleep Before Suddenly Attacking. Well, I Put That Into The Movie. And I Decided To Move My Head In The Jerky Way A Praying Mantis Does. So, I Did All These Things To Give The Movie A Feeling Of Otherness.

Dream

Moving

Sleep

It May Come As A Surprise To People, But I'm Actually Quite Boring And Normal. What Do I Do? I Read Books. I Drive My Kid To School. I Have Lunch With My Wife. I Pick My Kid Up From School. I Go Home.

Book

Home

School

Generally My Instinct Is To Not Do Biographical Movies. I Want To Build Characters And Not Be Locked Into Playing A Part In History.

Character

Want

Instinct

I Don't Want To Sit Around By The Pool Luxuriating With A Margarita. That's Just Not What I Want To Do.

Want

Pool

Margarita

I Actually Enjoy Working With Green Screen, Because I Can Imagine All That Stuff Happening, And I Really Cut My Teeth On A Movie I Made Called "adaptation" Where I Had To Imagine Four-page Dialogue Scenes With My Twin Brother, Who Was Nothing More Than A Tennis Ball And A Gas Stand.

Brother

Cutting

Tennis

I Never Say Never, But I Haven't Been Given The Quality Of Script To Compel Me To Go On Television.

Quality

Goes On

Television

I'm Not Really Interested In Playing Famous People. I Prefer To Create Characters. And I Hope I Have An Exciting Enough Life That Somebody Might Make A Movie About That One Day. I Don't Want To Make Movies About Other People. I Was Once Approached About Playing Salvador Dali, Which I Thought Would've Been Fun Until I Found Out That He Was Proud Of Kicking A Blind Man Across The Street. So, I Decided, I Didn't Want To Play That Guy. So, I Think I'll Just Keep It The Way It Is.

Fun

Character

Men

You Can't Make Your Choices Based On What Critics Think. You Have To Make Your Choices Based On What's Honest For You.

Thinking

Choices

Honest

I'm Legally Unable To Ride Motorcycles. It's A Contract That I Have With My Life Insurance, So Whenever I Get A Chance To Do A Movie And Ride A Bike I Go For It.

Motorcycle

Chance

Contracts

Actors Work With Their Look. I Come From The Lon Chaney Sr. School Of Acting. I'll Wear Wigs, I'll Wear Nose Pieces, I'll Wear Green Contact Lenses In My Eyes. I'll Do Whatever I Need To Do To Create A Character.

School

Character

Eye

Hollywood Didn't Know If I Was An Actor Or A Nut Or If I Was This Crazy Character I Was Playing. I Had Developed An Image Of Being A Little Bit Unusual, Different And Wild.

Crazy

Character

Nuts

We Do See Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi And Chow Yun Fat, But It's Very Rare To See The Chinese Male Actor In Hollywood Movies, Which Is Something I Take Great Umbrage With. You Know, My Son Is Asian. He May Want To Direct One Day; He May Want To Be An Actor Like His Father - And I Want That To Be Open To Him.

Father

Son

Chinese

I'm At The Point Now Where I Know I'm Doing Something Right When A Movie Gets Mixed Reviews, Because Then I'm Not In The Box. I Don't Want To Make It Too Easy For People And I Don't Want To Make It Too Easy For Myself. I Want To Try Something Unusual.

People

Trying

Want

I Find It Inspiring And I Always Think When I'm Working On Something New, Whether It's A New Kind Of Character Or A New Kind Of Story Or New Kind Of Camera, It Gets My Creative Wheels Spinning.

Character

Thinking

Creative

My Father Was Always Getting Excited About Something. It's Genetically Inside Me Somewhere.

Father

Gmos

Excited

I'm Always Curious About What Happens When We Die. And I'd Like To Think That Somehow The Spirit Goes On. I'd Rather Not Think That It's Just About This.

Thinking

Goes On

Spirit

I Have Eclectic Tastes In The Movies I Want To Do.

Eclectic Style

Want

Taste

I Think A Good Movie Is A Good Movie Whether That Falls Into A Genre Or Not.

Fall

Thinking

Good Movie

As A Child, These Colourful Superheroes That Could Fly, Or Were Horrifying Like Ghost Rider And The Hulk, With This Tremendous Rage Or These Supernatural Powers, Provided An Escape For Me From My Mundane Existence, From My Lack Of Friends Or My Inability To Communicate Well With People. They Liberated Me.

Children

People

Superhero

I Would Say That I'm 98 Percent Skeptical, But The Other 2 Percent [is] Open For The Possibility Of Things.

Possibility

Skeptical

Percent

I've Always Maintained That I See Myself As A Student. There's Always Something To Learn And Be Challenged By And Hopefully Grow From.

Students

Grows

Hopefully

I've Really Had Good Luck Working With Younger Actors. Every Younger Actor That I Have Worked With Has Always Been Really On Top Of Their Game And Fascinating To Watch.

Good Luck

Games

Actors

I Just Try To Keep It Fresh. I Try To Keep It Interesting. The Truth Is My Roots Are Independently Spirited Dramas That Are Small, And I Will Always Go Back To That Well, Because That's Where I Broke Out Of. But I'm Going To Keep Doing As Many Different Movies As I Possibly Can.

Drama

Roots

Interesting

I Think I've Become More Relaxed Throughout My Career. I Don't Feel The Need To Jump Up And Down And Make A Big Noise To Get People To Pay Attention To Me. I Don't Need To Do Punk Rock Gestures Or Eat A Cockroach Or Do Something Weird To Say I Exist.

Thinking

Rocks

Careers

I've Always Had A Soft Spot For Comic Books. I Learned To Read From Them. The Words In Them Were So Interesting.

Book

Interesting

Comic

I Do Understand Sometimes When Actors Say There's No One To Talk To, Or You Can't React To, There's Truth In That, But For Me, I've Always Enjoyed Green Screen, And Blue Screen.

Blue

Actors

Green

There's A Fine Line Between The Method Actor And The Schizophrenic.

Acting

Actors

Lines

I Think On Some Level, All Of Us Have A Little Bit Of Belief In The Possibility Of Different Energies And Forces And Things Like That. Otherwise, We Wouldn't Be Afraid Of Them. Or There Wouldn't Be So Many Movies About Them.

Thinking

Energy

Different

I Think That The Best Characters Are The Ones Who Both Manage To Be Attractive And Repulsive At The Same Time.

Character

Thinking

Attractive

I Needed To Change My Name Just To Liberate Myself And Find Out I Could Do It Without Walking Into A Hollywood Casting Office With The Name Coppola.

Names

Office

Hollywood

I Want To Always Find New Ways Of Reinventing Myself.

Want

Way

New Ways

Yeah, My Real Name Is Coppola. I Changed It Because They'd Think I Was Some Nepotism-oriented Kid.

Real

Kids

Thinking

Well, Amber [heard] Is Still Raising Her Eyebrow At Me Because I Said That I've Been 180 Miles Per Hour On The 405 Freeway On A Motorcycle And She Doesn't Believe Me But It's A True Story. I Did It Coming Home From Work At 3 In The Morning On Another Movie I Made About Cars Called Gone In 60 Seconds. I Bought A Yamaha-1 And I Was Doing 180 Miles Per Hour Home On The 405 And That's Really, Really Crazy But I Did It.

Morning

Crazy

Believe

I Went To New Orleans For The First Time For Wild At Heart, And I Kept Going Back To Make More Movies There. I've Become Very Close To The City And Part Of Me Does Feel Like A New Orleanian.

Heart

New Orleans

Cities

I Like Both Blu-ray And Dvd, But Blu-ray Gives You More Options.

Dvds

Giving

Rays

My Best Takes Are My First Two Takes.

Two

Firsts

I Want To Try To Apply My Abilities Sometimes To Make Families Happy, So I Have To Make Movies At A Venue That Are Not Gratuitously Violent, That Are Not Using Bullets And Bloodshed, But Are Using Things Like Magic And Fantasy And Enchantment And The Imagination. To Me That's Just All Positive Stuff. But I Am Eclectic And I Still Like To Make Movies For The Midnight Audience As Well.

Imagination

Magic

Trying

All Movies On Some Level Can Aspire To Be More Than Just Whatever The Label Is Of The Movie.

Labels

Levels

Aspire

More Than Ever, Movies Reveal Themselves As Healing, As Helpful, As Encouraging, As Escapist - Anything That Makes Someone Get Through Their Day In These Times. It's The Best Form Of Entertainment, And It's Still Arguably The Most Inexpensive Form Of Entertainment.

Healing

Entertainment

Helpful

I Generally Enjoy The Rehearsal Process Because That's Where You Can Share Your Ideas, Get Your Thoughts And Feelings Out And See Whether Or Not They're Going To Land, Whether Or Not People Are Going To Agree With Them, Particularly The Director. So You Can Sort Out In That Process Any Elements That Need To Be Sorted Out Before You're On The Set, And Of Course That Saves Time And It Also Makes Everyone More Comfortable Working Together.

Land

Ideas

People

Well, Good Science Fiction Is Intelligent. It Asks Big Questions That Are On People's Minds. It's Not Impossible. It Has Some Sort Of Root In The Abstract. So Automatically You're Getting Closer To Potentially Divine Sources Of Interest Because It Is Abstract. It's One Of The Only Ways That A Film Actor Can Express Himself In The Abstract And Have Audiences Still Go Along For The Ride. They Don't Contend It. They Accept It, That They're Going To Go Places That Are A Bit More Of The Imagination, A Bit More Out There, And That's More And More Where I Like To Dance.

Intelligent

Roots

People

I Was Thinking About Being More Global In My Work, Which Means Trying More Foreign Countries And Working With Foreign Filmmakers, Hoping They Would Give Me A New Take On My Work, A New Point Of View, Reinvent Me In Some Way.

Country

Mean

Thinking

I Do Tend To Apply Myself To Projects That Make Me Uncomfortable Because Usually When That Happens I Try To Find A Way Of Existing In The Project That Is More Creative.

Creative

Trying

Way

One Of The Pluses Of Getting Older Is You Set Some Limits.

Getting Older

Limits

The Most Meaningful Movies I Can Make Are The Ones Where Parents Can Share Them With Their Children And Children Can Look Forward To Sharing Them With Their Parents, A Ritual If You Will, Where They Get To Spend Time Together And The Kids Are Smiling.

Meaningful

Children

Kids

I'm The First To Admit That I Like Going To, Or My Memories At Least Of Going To Clint Eastwood Movies Or Charles Bronson Or James Bond.

Memories

Vivid Memories

Firsts

Acting Is Like Any Other Art Form, In That You Have The Option To Go Very Big Or Go Very Small.

Art

Acting

Form

I Have A Love/ Hate Relationship With The City Of New Orleans, Which Is The Strongest Kind Of Relationship.

Hate

New Orleans

Cities

How Do You Say One Actor Is Better Than Another Actor? You Can Definitely Say That In The Olympics If It's The Same Race And Someone Wins The Race. The Only Way To Really Do It And Have It Be Sincere Would Be If You Get All The Actors Together, And They're All Playing The Same Part, And Then You Rate Which One Made You Feel The Most.

Winning

Race

Together

I Don't Like It When People On The Street Say "smile" Or "cheer Up." It's A Real Cheap Line. I'm Feeling Good. I'm Feeling Real Grateful For Everything. It's A Solid Time In My Life. When People Say I Look Sad, They're Wrong.

Thank You

Cheer

Real

I Think The Paparazzi Might Have Chased Me Out Of Los Angeles.

Thinking

Might

Los Angeles

I've Always Believed That The Greatest Actors Are The Ones That Have The Voices That Are Imitable.

Voice

Actors

Always Believe

You Aren't A True Internationalist Until You've Supplied Weapons To Kill Your Own Countrymen.

Weapons

Countrymen

I Love Working With Younger Actors Because They Always Come Into The Game Full Of Energy And Ideas That Challenge Me And Keep Me Learning And Stimulated.

Games

Ideas

Challenges

I Was Very Happy With Vampire's Kiss, Which In My Opinion Was Almost Like An Independent Laboratory To Start Realizing Some Of My More Expressionistic Dreams With Film Performance. Then Using What I Had Learned In Vampire's Kiss And Putting It Into A Very Big Action Movie In The Form Of Face/off With John Woo. If You Look At Those Two Movies Back To Back, You Can See Where I Stole From My Performance In Vampire's Kiss.

Dream

Independent

Kissing

My Father Once Said, 'if You're In The Desert And You're Dying Of Thirst, Are You Going To Drink A Glass Of Blood Or Are You Going To Drink A Glass Of Water?' I Think What He Was Trying To Say, Interesting Coming From My Blood Father, Is Sometimes There Are People In Your Family That Can Be Toxic.

Father

Thinking

Glasses

I Would Like To Hook Up With One Of The Great Japanese Filmmakers, Like The Master That Made Ringu, And I Would Like To Take 'the Wicker Man' To Japan, Except This Time He's A Ghost.

Men

Japan

Hook

I Never Studied Dance, But If You Look At 'wild At Heart,' My Mother Saw That Movie And Said, 'you Are A Dancer. Look At How You're Moving: All That Strange Energy Is Like Modern Dance.'

Mother

Moving

Heart

There Are Over 550 Million Firearms In Worldwide Circulation. That's One Firearm For Every Twelve People On The Planet. The Only Question Is, How Do We Arm The Other 11?

People

Twelve

Arms

The Fact That 'astro Boy' Appealed To Me As A Boy In America Was Proof That The Story And Character Transcend Cultural Stereotypes.

Character

Boys

America

Shock Is Still Fun. I Won't Ever Shut The Door On It.

Fun

Doors

Shock

I Will Promise You That If I Can Give You Two Good Scenes -- Which Is What I Always Try To Do In Every Movie -- Then I Feel Like I'm Doing My Job.

Jobs

Work

Two

Sometimes I Do Love To Rehearse, But I Always Switch It Up Depending On Whom I'm Working With.

Sometimes

I Use Technology For Communication, But I Don't Have A Blackberry Or An Iphone. I Use An Outdated Cell Phone, But I'm Fine With It.

Communication

Technology

Iphone

I'm Not Really Gadget Oriented. I'm Not Into Technology Or Computers. I'm Not Good At Interfacing With That Sort Of Gear.

Technology

Gears

Gadgets

Nobody Wants To Watch Perfection.

Perfection

Watches

Want

I Believe That There's A Way To Question Authority With Manners, With Dignity. There's No Reason To Be Rude About It.

Believe

Rude

Way

I Haven't Made Anything I Don't Believe In. I've Always Started A Movie With A Song In My Heart, And Even When I'm A Little Unclear About It, Something Magical Happens And It Comes Into Focus In A Way That I'm Feeling Good About.

Song

Believe

Heart

With My Name In Cement, I Feel Actualised. - On Cementing His Hand Prints On Sunset Boulevard

Sunset

Hands

Names

I Try To Keep My Characters Raising More Questions Than Giving Answers. I Don't Want To Leave Too Much On The Table. I Want You To Have Your Connection And Your Secret Understanding Of The Character.

Character

Giving

Understanding

My Definition Of A Father Is Someone Who Empowers Their Children.

Children

Father

Empowering

Those Who Have The Ability To Take Action Have The Responsibility To Take Action.

Responsibility

Action

National Treasure

I Do Enjoy Animated Movies.

Enjoy

Animated

Animated Movies

There Is A Misperception, If You Will, In Critical Response Or Even In Hollywood, That I Can Only Do Exaggerated Characters. Or What They Would Call Over-the-top Performances. Well, This Is Completely False.

Character

Hollywood

Misperception

I Love It All. I Don't Want To Go Through My Career With One Hand Tied Behind My Back. I Love Making Kids Happy. I Love The Midnight Audience. I Like Intense Dramas. And I Like High-adrenaline Action Films.

Drama

Kids

Hands

I Do Like Characters That Have Flaws, Some Sort Of Pathos To Them That They Are Trying To Sort Out.

Character

Trying

Flaws

My Direction As A Person Working In Film Has Been To Never Get Comfortable With Anything I Was Doing. At The Time That I Decided To Do Action Films, People Were Telling Me, "well, You Can't Do It. You're Not That Type. It's Not Going To Work." And So Obviously That Made Me Think, "well, That's Not Comfortable. Maybe I Should Try It. What Can I Do With It?" So I Did That, And I'm Glad I Did It. I'll Probably Do It Again, And I Did Other Kinds Of Things That Seemed Like Challenges For Me, Because I Like Being On The High Wire.

Thinking

People

Challenges

Zoology Has Always Been Interesting To Me. Nature Is Fascinating.

Interesting

Zoology

Fascinating

People Often Say That You Should Never Work With Child Actors. I Think That's All Wrong. Children Have Not Had The Imagination Kicked Out Of Them By Life Experience And Adulthood. So, They Still Are Very Much Alive With That Kind Of Magical Thinking Which Enables An Actor To Believe They're In These Circumstances And Make Them Real To You.

Children

Real

Believe

I Think Anything That Opens My Mind And Triggers My Imagination I'm Reading. I Like To Read Science Fiction And Imagine The Character. Anything That Keeps My Imagination Flowing.

Reading

Character

Thinking

Most Of My Favourite Moments In Film Have Been When I've Had An Opportunity To Say Something From Scratch, Something Original, Whether I Jotted Down A Few Lines Or It Came Out In Improvisation.

Opportunity

Scratches

Lines

I Think What Makes People Fascinating Is Conflict, It's Drama, It's The Human Condition. Nobody Wants To Watch Perfection.

Drama

Thinking

People

I Don't Drink Blood, And Last Time I Looked In The Mirror, I Had A Reflection.

Reflection

Mirrors

Blood

I Always Say, If You Think It’s Over The Top Then Tell Me Where The Top Is First. I Don’t Think Anyone Can. But If You Can Tell Me Where The Top Is Then I’ll Tell You Whether Or Not I’m Over It.

Thinking

Firsts

Wells

To Be A Good Actor You Have To Be Something Like A Criminal, To Be Willing To Break The Rules To Strive For Something New.

Acting

Criminals

Actors

I Don't Want To Just Do Independent Movies And I Don't Want To Just Do Adventure Films. I Enjoy Both, And I Think Both Are Cogent.

Adventure

Independent

Thinking

Often You Hear Stories About Never Working With Children. I Disagree Because Children Still Have That Residual Magical Thinking. They Haven't Had Their Imagination Knocked Out Of Them By Turning Into Adults And Life Experiences.

Children

Thinking

Imagination

I Think That Movies Can Help Guide Us Through Those Experiences [the Problems That Are Happening In Our Daily Lives, The Stresses Between Countries, The Economy And Global Warming]. I Think All Art Tries To Grapple With, Redefine, Come To Terms With, Express What's Happening Now When It's Working. You Can Be Entertained, But You Can Also Be Stimulated To Think About Things.

Country

Art

Stress

I'm One Of Those People That Feels That Americans That Shouldn't Do Shakespeare... The Rhythms Of The English Language And The Mannerisms Of The English Speech Seems To Work Effortlessly With William Shakespeare, But When Americans Do It, Something Seems Stuck.

People

Speech

Language

Sometimes People Think I'm Wearing A Wig When I'm Not Wearing A Wig, And Then Sometimes They Think I'm Not Wearing A Wig When I Am Wearing A Wig.

Thinking

People

Wigs

I Think That If You Go About Making Movies To Win Oscars, You’re Really Going About It The Wrong Way.

Winning

Thinking

Oscars

Halloween Has Always Been Fascinating To Me From A Very Young Age. I Think Any Actor Would Be Fascinated By Halloween Because It's One Of The Only Holidays That Advocates Dressing Up In Makeup And Costumes And Transforming Oneself.

Halloween

Holiday

Makeup

It's Kind Of A Unique Concept, But It's Totally Real, Isn't It? ... I Mean, These Paramedics Put Themselves In Incredibly Stressful Situations, Are Killing Themselves To Save Our Lives And They're Not Really Regarded Or Appreciated.

Real

Mean

Unique

Movies Work, In My Opinion, On The Best Level When They're More Enigmatic, When We Don't Say It's This Or That And Where It Raises More Questions Than Answers.

Answers

Levels

Opinion

Some Things Are True Whether You Believe In Them Or Not.

Truth

Believe

Reality

I Invite The Entire Spectrum, Shall We Call It, Of Feeling. Because That Is My Greatest Resource As A Film Actor. I Need To Be Able To Feel Everything, Which Is Why I Refuse To Go On Any Kind Of Medication. Not That I Need To! But My Point Is, I Wouldn't Even Explore That, Because It Would Get In The Way Of My Instrument.

Feelings

Needs

Actors

Without Mentioning Any Names, I Looked At Pretty Much Every Story That May Come To Your Mind About A Politician On The Rise Who Was Stopped Short Or Dragged Down By Personal Flaws And Then Became Just A Media Storm. I See This As A Thing That Continues To Happen In America And I Wanted To Say Something About That.

Media

Names

America

Disney Has A Great Tradition Of Enchanting Children And Giving Them Something To Behold.

Children

Giving

Tradition

I Know There's Been A Lot That's Been Said About Animated Voice Work, As Though It's 'you Can Do This In Your Jeans And There's No Camera And No Pressure There. It's No Big Deal. It's Easy.' The Truth Is, It's Really A Great Test: How Deep Is Your Ability Is To Access Your Imagination?

Jeans

Voice

Imagination

I Try Not To Be Proud. I Try To Actively Attack Pride.

Pride

Trying

Proud

I'm Not An Anarchist Any More. I Still Love The Sex Pistols, But I Don't Want To Be A Punk Rocker All The Time, But I Do Want To Carry On Exploring New Forms Of Acting.

Sex

Acting

Want

For Me, Acting Was A Way Of Taking Destructive Energy And Doing Something Productive With It, And In That Way It Was Quite A Life Saver.

Acting

Energy

Way

It's Always Exciting When You Can Go Into A Mode Where You Can Be Both Spontaneous And Choreographed. Sort Of In Control And Out Of Control At The Same Time.

Spontaneous

Exciting

If You're Really Special, Meaning You're Doing Something Unique And Original, It Could Scare People.

Unique

People

Special

I Like Fantasy. I Like Horror, Science Fiction Because I Can Get Avant-garde With Those Performances In Those Movies.

Avant Garde

Fiction

Fantasy

I'm Always Fearful Of Something Happening To People I Love. That Doesn't Go Away.

People

Going Away

Fearful

At A Young Age, I Was Interested In Comic Books, Which Was Really How I Learnt To Read. The Name Cage Came From A Comic Book Character Called Power Man.

Book

Character

Men

Personally, My Interests Are Ancient History And Ancient Civilizations. In My Own Life, I'd Like To Go To Places Like Easter Island.

Easter

Islands

Civilization

I Love All Animals. I Have A Fascination With Fish, Birds, Whales - Sentient Life - Insects, Reptiles.

Animal

Whales

Bird

I'm Always Going To Judge Somebody On Their Work Ethic, And Whether Or Not They Made Me Feel Something, Or Whether Or Not I Felt They Did A Good Job. To Me, It's Important To Try To Block Anything Personal Out And Look At The Performance, In Any Field.

Jobs

Block

Judging

I Had Been Making A Lot Of Family Oriented Movies, Which I Also Like. But I Still Have A Passion For The Midnight Audience And For Midnight Movies.

Passion

Midnight

Family Oriented

Don't Lose The Best Thing In Your Life Just Because You Are Not Sure.

Family Man

Not Sure

Best Things

I Would Love To Work With Tim Burton. I Think We Would Be Very Good Together.

Thinking

Together

Would Be

I Always Add A Year To Myself, So I'm Prepared For My Next Birthday. So When I Was 39, I Was Already 40.

Years

Age

Add

I Don't Know If My Wife Left Me Because Of My Drinking Or I Started Drinking 'cause My Wife Left Me.

Drinking

Wife

Causes

I Would Definitely Return To Austria. They Were All Good Experiences For Me, But Definitely Austria Because There Were Some Ancient Celtic, Sacred Sites That Were In The Forest That Were Quite Beautiful.

Beautiful

Austria

Sacred

I Knew I Wanted To Be An Actor When I Was Very Young. I Guess I Was About 6 Years Old At The Time, And I Was Fascinated By Television. I Started Having Waking Fantasies Where I Was In A Movie And There Were Crane Shots Of Me During A Scene.

Years

Television

Waking

Everything We Do Impacts Someone Else's Life.

Impact

I Have Dogs, And It's No Secret That I Find Reptiles Interesting, But The Thing About Reptiles Is That They Really Just Wanna Be Left Alone, And I Understand Them. It's, 'don't Pick Me Up, Stop Holding Me, Don't Look At Me, Just Leave Me Alone.' I Have To Admit, Sometimes I Feel Like That.

Dog

Interesting

Pick Me Up

All Of My Characters Have A Glint Of Madness.

Character

Madness

Nobody Can Make A Movie As Exciting As Jerry Bruckheimer. When It's A Jerry Bruckheimer Movie That It's Going To Have Lots Of Chrome And Gloss, It's Going To Be Sexy, And It's Going To Be Big And Fun.

Sexy

Fun

Chrome

Every Great Story Seems To Begin With A Snake.

Snakes

Stories

Seems

In This Day And Age, Where You Have A Lot Of Comic Book Movies Made Every Day, And Most Of Them Are Really Good Boys, It's Important To Have A Couple Bad Boys Out There, Too.

Couple

Book

Boys

I Am Not A Demon. I Am A Lizard, A Shark, A Heat-seeking Panther. I Want To Be Bob Denver On Acid Playing The Accordion.

Sharks

Denver

Panthers

I Got Into Film Acting Because I Wanted To Be James Dean. We Lost Him At A Very Young Age - He Was Only 24 - But I’m 51 Going On 52, So There's Only So Many Times You Can Act Like James Dean. I Had To Find New Ways Of Expressing Myself That Kept Me Fascinated With Film Performance.

Age

Acting

Way

Passion Is Very Important To Me. If You Stop Enjoying Things, You've Got To Look At It, Because It Can Lead To All Kinds Of Depressing Scenarios.

Depressing

Passion

Important

I Like Being At That Place Where You Can Either Fall Or Stand. That's Where I Think You Really Have A Shot At Doing Something Truthful.

Fall

Thinking

Truthful

Actors, Their Greatest Tool, Their Greatest Resource Is Imagination. You Can Take Things, Power Objects, You Can Recruit Your Dreams, You Can Access Your Memories And Get There. So The Idea Is Not To Act But To Just Be.

Dream

Memories

Ideas

When I Work, I Really Try To Get Absorbed In The Character. Unless I Want To Do Something Playful With The Camera, I'm Not Too Worried About Where The Camera Is Or Positions.

Character

Trying

Cameras

When You Have 400 People Watching You Making A Movie, It Doesn't Go Where You Want It To Go. It's A Lot Of Pressure.

People

Want

Pressure

I Care About The Connection With The Audience. Film Is Such A Powerful Medium. Movies Can Change The Way People Think.

Inspirational

Powerful

Thinking

I Don't Think Movies Are The Reason Why This Violence Exists, I Think It's Going To Happen Whether Movies Are There Or Not.

Thinking

Violence

Reason Why

I Always Add A

Understanding the Quote: "i always add a year to myself, so i'm prepared for my..."

Lessons From the Quote

About Nicolas Cage

Actionable Takeaways

Closing Thoughts