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Nicolas Cage on family and film

By Fabian Waintal
ATLANTIC SYNDICATION
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004, Page 16

Dressed in an elegant black shirt which goes perfectly with his shoes and pants, it is his diamond encrusted watch on his left hand that also matches well with the other recent acquisition: a wedding ring. Being 40 years old, he is at a good place in his life, maintaining a successful career with the new Walt Disney mega movie National Treasure.

Fabian Waintal: Did something change for you when you turned 40 years old? Does the subject about age bother you?

Nicolas Cage: Yes, but I have my secret: I always add a year to myself so I am prepared for my next birthday. When I was 39 I was already 40 and now I am 41 (he laughs). I don't want to say happy, because that's too fragile a word, but definitely I am content.

FW: Do you still find challenges at this age, with the same passion as in the beginning?

NC: Still today, I consider myself a student. There is always something to learn, with new challenges to face, to keep growing.

FW: Is marriage another one of those challenges? Is it a relief to have fallen in love with someone like Alice Kim, who isn't connected at all to show business?

Nicolas Cage has slipped into his 40s and it would appear he has nothing left to prove. PHOTOS: ATLANTIC SYNDICATION

NC: (Laughing) I am only going to say that I am very content at this time in my life. That's it.

(FW: Although he wouldn't want to compete with the likes of Jennifer Lopez, this is Cage's third try at holy matrimony, after two frustrating marriages one of which was with Patricia Arquette and the other was his shortest and most famous marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, which hardly lasted four months.

Accustomed to his intuitive impulses, Nicolas Cage had asked Patricia Arquette to marry him the first day they met, although they officially started dating years afterward, getting married finally on April 8, 1995, only to divorce six years later.

As a devout Elvis fan, he received his best "treasure" when he won over Elvis's daughter Lisa Marie and although they had been together for just a few months, in 2002, their marriage officially ended in divorce, without any division of assets, on May 16, this year, just two months before his third wedding, to an unknown Asian woman called Alice Kim. Gorgeous and in her early 20s, Alice was working as a waitress in a sushi bar in Los Angeles, when Nicolas Cage met her in February and again he took little time to consider the next step when he got engaged immediately just two months later. Without any paparazzi hovering nearby, they married July 30 in a private ceremony that was celebrated on a ranch, near San Francisco, followed by the honeymoon in the Corcega Island (Italy), surrounded by romantic gondolas.

The topic of his private life was too personal and Nicolas Cage prefers to change the subject, promoting his movie National Treasure and moving the conversation along, saying "it mixes real facts with some fantasy." It has a certain Indiana Jones style, which follows along the family tradition, looking for a hidden treasure, based on intriguing clues that are hidden in documents left by the greatest American heroes.)

FW: Is there something in particular that led you to film National Treasure?

NC: What intrigued me the most about this movie was the idea that someone would steal the Declaration of Independence, thinking that it held a secret treasure map. It didn't seem possible to me.

And Jerry Bruckheimer always finds a way to show the facts in a credible way. You even can see me in a tuxedo? that is also interesting (laughing).

FW: In your personal life, are you as obsessive as in the movie?

NC: It's true that my character proves to be pretty obsessive with the idea of finding a hidden treasure. And the truth is, I have been obsessed over the years with where I could go with acting or how I could challenge myself.

(FW: With the real name Nicolas Coppola, he also is proud of a prestigious family which includes his cousin, Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) or his uncles Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) and Talia Shire (Rocky). His father, Augusto, was a literature professor and his mother, Joy Vogelsang, preferred family art with dance. Attending the same Beverly Hills High School as Albert Brooks, Angelina Jolie or Antonio Sabato Jr, Nic also took drama classes but left school at 17 years old. He chose the new last name "Cage," inspired by a comic book character, Luke Cage, the first black superhero.)

FW: Would you consider yourself a comic book fanatic?

NC: As a young man, I learned how to read with comic books. Of course, there were other ways, but I loved the mythology that all the superheroes have, because since I was a kid, I was crazy about Greek myths. I always felt that they would be a hit on film as well, even before they became successful.

FW: Did the famous Francis Ford Coppola family have anything to do with the process?

NC: The desire to be an actor, I kept it pretty close to the vest. I don't think a lot of people knew that I wanted to follow that path. There were little hints, I enjoyed Halloween and I wanted to be a disguise artist and thought I was going to be a detective.

FW: Would you go to any extreme to get a role in a movie?

NC: Not now, but if you had checked with me when I was 18 years old, I can assure you, yes. I did it, like when I ate a horrible cockroach in Vampire's Kiss, but now I don't think it's worth it. I want to keep a happy balance between life and work.

FW: Do you prefer awards that you have from independent films like Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation or the millions that you earn with blockbusters like Con Air or the new one, National Treasure?

NC: I think it is boring to do the same kinds of movies, I love keeping myself guessing and keeping you guessing.

FW: Will you go back to directing?

NC: Directing is the one area that I am slow to pull the trigger on because I feel that I'm still cutting my teeth in that area. I am very happy with the movie Sonny that I directed and it was a challenging movie. I think it was difficult for people to grasp, because the subject matter is somewhat taboo.

FW: And DVDs? What do you think about the change that it has had on the way we watch a movie?

NC: It is fantastic that someone can see the movies over again, discovering something new that he or she did not see the first time. Where I think it becomes dangerous, and I am guilty of this, is the narration or the behind the scenes footage. Of course, it is helpful to young cinematographers or some actors, but it also shows the man behind the curtains in the Wizard of Oz and it is destroying the work of art itself, the illusion and the magic. I prefer to keep the secrets and mystery in the movies.
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