No./9 What it’s like to direct Nicolas Cage (as himself)
Director Tom Gormican on his mad Cage meta-comedy
THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT
THERE’S A SCENE IN The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent — the high-concept meta film in which Nicolas Cage plays himself, and an imaginary younger version of himself — which left writer-director Tom Gormican lost for words. “The line is just, ‘You’re Nic fucking Cage!’” he explains. Cage, however, chose to scream the line, making the word “fuckiiiing” last a full ten seconds. “Just imagine for a second you’re directing that scene,” says Gormican, laughing. “What notes do you give? Nic came over and said, ‘I wanted it to be transcendental.’ Under no other circumstances, with any other actor, do you get that. That’s a Nic choice.”
Choices like that have come thick and fast with the making of this film, which takes a fictionalised Nicolas Cage, and plonks him into a Mexican drug-cartel thriller — while being haunted by visions of a ’90s Cage (also played by Cage, with de-ageing CGI). It’s a wild premise. But Cage took it deadly seriously. “He’s the most committed actor,” says Gormican. “He would get up every morning at 3am and do the elliptical from 3.30am to 4.30am, while reading the script again. I would wake up to ten or 15 texts about his current thoughts on the movie. I loved it.”
Playing a heightened version of himself did not come without some anxiety for Cage. He and Gormican went “line by line” through the script, making sure he was comfortable with the ‘Nic’ character. Gormican recalls: “Nic would say this thing to me: ‘Y’know, there’s a guy who wears rings and leather jackets and lives in Las Vegas, and he wouldn’t say that.’
I’d say, ‘Oh, you mean you?’”
And perhaps befitting its star, the production was not without its behind-the-scenes chaos, with the pandemic delaying filming — and crew forced to self-isolate after testing positive mid-shoot, including the director. “I remote-directed for a week,” says Gormican. “I directed without my DP for a week. It was tough. I mean, shooting a film with an actor playing himself is hard enough!” But Cage was always game for a selfreferential nod. “In one scene, Nic has hit a low point,” Gormican recalls. “I wanted to take the shot from Leaving Las Vegas where he’s drinking a beer in the pool with his sunglasses on — that’s peak Cage, Oscar-winning Cage. So we built a tank, replicated that shot, and I’m explaining it to Nic. And he’s like, ‘Tom. I know. I’ve done it before.’” He laughs. “Of course! You’re in the actual shot.”
It’s a unique, surreal gamble of a film and there’s still a lengthy post-production process to come, but early test screenings would suggest the idea has landed, Gormican says. “The first time we screened the movie in Dallas, they went, ‘I really feel like this is the Cage-iest Cage film of all time.’ And that’s really all I wanted to hear.” No matter which version he’s playing, you can be in no doubt: he’s Nic fuckiiiing Cage.
THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT IS COMING SOON