Back in the fall of 2021,Nicolas Cagetold ushe’d never watchThe Unbearable Weight of MassiveTalent. However, Cage wound up changing his stance on the matter, and it’s a good thing he did because the final film is better off for it.
Cage headlines as, well, Nicolas Cage. Or rather, a fictionalized version of Nicolas Cage. He’s a movie star who’s hit a rough patch. He’s feeling creativity unfilled, has amassed a serious amount of debt and is also drifting further and further away from his family. In an effort to make some quick cash, Cage accepts a $1 million offer to attend a superfan’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party in Mallorca. Things take an unexpected turn when Cage comes to learn that his superfan is actually a dangerous criminal being surveilled by the CIA.
With the release ofThe Unbearable Weight of MassiveTalentright around the corner, I got the chance to chat with Cage and asked him what made him change his mind and watch the film:
“I had to watch it because my other hat on this movie was producer, and as a producer, it got to a point where the studio had an opinion and the director had an opinion and it was time for fresh eyes. And I had to shut off half my mind and half my heart and look at the movie from a place of neutral, and as a producer, I was able to say to the studio, ‘I think you’ve got to put some of [director] Tom [Gormican]’s flavor back in the movie. You’re losing a lot of the flavor of the comedy.’ And to Tom, I had to say, ‘I think these two scenes aren’t landing.’ And I’m glad I did it because I think we finally got to a place where the movie works as a whole in the best possible way, the best of both worlds.”
RELATED:L.A. Readers: Win Free Tickets to Our Screening of ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ with Filmmaker Q&A
What exactly is thatTom Gormicanflavor that Cage thought the movie need more of? Irreverent humor. He began by highlighting the importance of “not worrying so much about checking all the boxes with … focus groups.” Cage continued by offering up a specific example of a scene that benefited from that that you can see in the finished film:
“‘Well, we’ve got to make the character more likable, more likable, and then they lose some of the self-deprecating humor or the irreverent humor that Tom had. Like, okay, the piano scene where the character is drunk and he’s playing piano and he’s making a mess at the birthday party. They homogenized it so much that the Nic Cage character wasn’t doing anything wrong. Everybody was rolling their eyes. Like, ‘Well, he’s just singing a sweet song to his daughter!’ You got to make it more of a train wreck at the risk of him being less likable because the character has to grow. He has to evolve into a sensitive family man.”
Looking for more from Cage? Be sure to check out our full conversation in the video interview at the top of this article and catchThe Unbearable Weight of MassiveTalentin theaters on April 22nd,
