Nicolas Cage says he wants to work with more Gen Z directors as Hollywood studios move more toward AI.
Cage visited New York Comic Con on Saturday morning while working on the film. Perish in Minneapolis, as part of a “Spotlight” panel that covered a career of critically acclaimed roles, action blockbusters and indie and cult classics.
While discussing the future of his career and how he’s trying to survive as a performer and film actor “in a very different world that’s growing exponentially with so much information so quickly,” the actor reflected on his time working on Prime Video’s single season. Black Spider.
“The way this is deployed with gifs, and we talked about Kane Parsons and what he was able to do with ‘Still Life’ in our other conversation, it seems to me that if I could like a photo of Cindy Sherman – take the character, get angry, and then take the photo, that would communicate with the meme world that we live in today,” he said. “(But) how can you become relevant when things are changing so quickly? I’m still looking for that, and I don’t really have an exact answer for you. And I’m still trying to find it.”
He continued: “How do you survive AI? Amazon is a very pro-AI company with $50 billion invested in OpenAI. I’m not a pro-AI player. I didn’t sign the waiver to let them use AI on Black Spider. It’s almost like I’m probably not going to work with this studio anymore. But it’s okay. So I get to meet these young filmmakers who are Gen Z and they’re following their own path, whether it’s through YouTube culture or whatever. They do it from scratch and by hand. I want to get there.
Cage also opened up about whether he’s venturing into his own work on YouTube or podcasts, which led him to discuss the ongoing conversation about a potential role in True Detective season five.
“Because you can only do so many movies in a row to act, and necessity is the mother of invention, you can connect those dots as well. What do I mean by necessity? Feed the family and not do too many movies back to back. So I think I’ll probably do another season of television,” he told the crowd. “I think I could have a season of A real detective. It’s normal that I’m the first to announce it, right? Like Jonathan Turteltaub, he takes a microphone in his hand, goes to Philadelphia and says: “We do National Treasure 3, and Nic arrives. I’m like, “No, I didn’t sign up for this.” You need to take these microphones out of the hands of these directors. He added: “We’ll see if I want to go for it. »
Right after, Cage also cracked a joke about the next movie he would support, and that, he said, was a National treasure film in which “Ben Gates attacks the Epstein files. It would be relevant. I will make this film.”
At another point, while talking about the very online nature of today’s cinema, he shared that the pop culture meme featuring him that he doesn’t understand came from The unbearable weight of massive talents. “I just don’t understand Pedro Pascal and Nic Cage’s LSD trip. I’m like, OK, he has a stupid smile, and I have a stupid smile. What’s the problem?”
The rest of the conversation covered everything from Con Air And Ghost Rider has Leaving Las Vegas And Valley GirlCage talking as much about upcoming projects as past projects. This includes Perisha role he described as a trippy dream that helped him unlock the character, in which he shared that he “wears a rainbow faux fur code.”
“In the dream I was myself, and there was this little baby, and also on the other side there were these beautiful ladies. It was a kind of call of nature. ‘Nicholas, come to us, come to us.’ And I said, “I don’t know whose baby this is.” I have to protect the baby. “No, Nicolas, come with us, come with us. I chose the baby, even though it wasn’t my baby. I said I couldn’t leave a baby alone, and I woke up and left, I just unlocked how to play the character.’
While working with directors, Cage noted that he does not like directors who give line readings. If the director is doing too much for you, “Well, why did you hire me?” » Recently, a director and actor’s visions clashed regarding an upcoming project. “A film which has not yet been released and which is called The Prince, I had these really weird hand gestures and the director’s (like), I’m not too sure. I said, ‘I really believe it’s going to work…I think it’s going to work,'” he said. “When you see the film, you’ll see that it works.”
On the other side of the panel, Cage pointed out that he studied performance and film. “It’s always about learning. It’s about trying to find ways to reinvent or refine or practice and expand my palate, if you will, to colors that I can use in my range,” Cage said earlier in the panel. “If I can do an independent drama, which is my roots, it’s great if I can move into action, which was a challenge back then. Or adventure films, I wanted to learn something there to see if I could do that, or do comedy, and even within that, the different genres. I wanted to explore different styles.”
Cage explained that he felt like no matter how ridiculous some of his characters are, they stand the test of time. “I think I’ve been lucky in that way. I don’t think any of them, outside of technology, can be misunderstood because I think they all come from an emotional place that people can relate to on some level.”
HBO did not immediately respond. The Hollywood Reporter request for comment.
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