"That was Nic Cage doing Nic Cage."

July 30, 2019 8:57 AM

'Never On Tuesday': The Real Story Of The Bizarre Nicolas Cage Cameo That Lit Up The Internet
posted by Etrigan (26 comments total)

And the pure injustice of finding out thru the trailer screencap that Claudia Christian was one of the leads. This movie is stacked.
posted by cendawanita at 9:46 AM on July 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

My favorite part of this particular viral thing is that it was kicked off by a tweet from Giant Bomb editor Alex Navarro, who at the time had (and still currently has) his Twitter display name set as "A Cruel Angel's Beavis". I was very amused to see that name in a bunch of the hot-off-the-presses internet trend reporting.
posted by IAmUnaware at 9:55 AM on July 30, 2019 [8 favorites]

The Dark Backward, mentioned in the article, was made, and is immensely strange.
posted by maxsparber at 9:57 AM on July 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

And then Gilbert Gottfried shows up. I've seen this movie! It must have made the rounds on cable? Broadcast TV?
posted by steef at 10:00 AM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

ctrl-f "emo phillips" in the article returns 0 results. Which is a bummer because it's pretty clear to me that's what Cage is doing in this cameo.
posted by turbowombat at 10:15 AM on July 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

"Modern Waiting for Godot with a bunch of bizarre celebrity cameos" sounds like a fantastic movie TBH.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:38 AM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

I won't believe anyone that claims to be obsessed with Nic Cage until I hear them answer every yes/no question with, "No, but your face is." My friends have hated me for 35 years for answering their questions with that.
posted by NoMich at 10:47 AM on July 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

ctrl-f "emo phillips" in the article returns 0 results.

Came back to say exactly the same thing.
posted by mykescipark at 11:19 AM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

Mr.Encyclopedia: ""Modern Waiting for Godot with a bunch of bizarre celebrity cameos" sounds like a fantastic movie TBH."

"Chasing Amy but even more homophobic" sounds less so.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:34 AM on July 30, 2019 [7 favorites]

I will say, it's quite a decision to make "she's a lesbian" the reason why she doesn't have sex with either (or both) of the male leads, instead of, I dunno, "She's a person with agency and she doesn't want to have sex some random yahoos she just met"
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:43 AM on July 30, 2019 [8 favorites]

Everytime I hear an interview with Nic Cage I am struck by how incredibly thoughtful and careful he is with every performance, and how he thinks about and works with directors who he thinks will *get* what he's trying to do. Honestly I'm not a big fan and I don't think he's entirely successful at actually achieving his intended performance but I do think a lot of "wow Nic Cage is WILD" comes down to Cage making specific and unusual choices, not to him being an erratic actor.
posted by muddgirl at 11:54 AM on July 30, 2019 [4 favorites]

The young writer/director Adam Rifkin—this was his first movie. There was a film I was interested in making with him called The Dark Backward,

Not a great movie -- but a movie about a guy with a third arm coming out of his back.

ctrl-f "emo phillips" in the article returns 0 results.

Seems more Crispin Hellion Glover to me.
posted by dobbs at 12:16 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

but I do think a lot of "wow Nic Cage is WILD" comes down to Cage making specific and unusual choices, not to him being an erratic actor.

Can't both be true? That he's an erratic actor which informs the choices he makes and leads to his wonderfully bizarre performances?
posted by Sangermaine at 12:23 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

nouveau shamanic
posted by RobotHero at 12:40 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

Seems more Crispin Hellion Glover to me.


To further the Crispin Glover theory: Cage and Glover actually made their acting debut together in a 1981 TV pilot (never made).

Also, this clip was from 1989 and David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" came out one year later starring Cage and featuring the short but very "Gloveresque" cameo seen here. So the timelines are plausible!
posted by jeremias at 1:21 PM on July 30, 2019

He just sitting on the end of the bed, and he sat there for maybe an hour just watching the shark going up and down.
It's like an origin story.
posted by doctornemo at 1:33 PM on July 30, 2019 [4 favorites]

Everytime I hear an interview with Nic Cage I am struck by how incredibly thoughtful and careful he is with every performance, and how he thinks about and works with directors who he thinks will *get* what he's trying to do.

Ehhhhhh... I think that is probably often true. But his filmography is also clearly full of roles he took to buy more castles and dinosaur bones. Which is fine... Acting is a job like any other and actors have a right to work without always having to be overly precious about it. But still. It's not all earnest attempts at high art with Cage.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:13 PM on July 30, 2019

That was Nic Cage doing Anton Chigurh by way of Jonathan Harris' Dr. Smith. In this case, though, a coin didn't flip, Cage did.

Props to Claudia for seemingly having been born with that awesome Bacall-esque voice.
posted by zaixfeep at 5:18 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

Well like I said I'm not a fan per se, I've only seen what you would call his performances - Vampire's Kiss, Face/Off, etc. I certainly couldn't say that he never just phones it in, I just struggle to find any kind of consensus about which films those are.
posted by muddgirl at 5:24 PM on July 30, 2019

Also I love digging through old interviews and finding amazing might-have-beens like this one:

Cage's next role is Superman. He goes to work playing the superhero July 6. The new movie, "Superman Lives," will be directed by Tim Burton.

And of course there are pictures of Cage in costume.
posted by muddgirl at 5:46 PM on July 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just remember: when they attack the car, save the radio.
posted by not_on_display at 7:44 PM on July 30, 2019

@muddgirl: There's an entire film about that film that never was. The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?
posted by krisjohn at 8:20 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

I just struggle to find any kind of consensus about which films those are.

There are some debates to be had about his big budget work. But he's also taken to doing two to six direct to video crapfests per year of the type that a person would have to struggle to make a case for. Seriously. Look over his iMDb. He's made many, many, many more films in the last ten years than most people realize, most of them sheer dreck.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:47 AM on July 31, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yes I know, bit when I look up reviews of those movies they praise Cage even when the movie sucked. Of course he's taking those parts for money, I didn't deny it, it's not like Disney has been banging down his door begging for National Treasure III. But that doesn't mean he, personally, isn't respecting those dumb roles. I think he should get more credit for that.
posted by muddgirl at 8:18 AM on July 31, 2019

I will say, it's quite a decision to make "she's a lesbian" the reason why she doesn't have sex with either (or both) of the male leads, instead of, I dunno, "She's a person with agency and she doesn't want to have sex some random yahoos she just met"

I agree, but also that it's surprisingly progressive about her explanation to them
"But why??"
"Why are you a heterosexual?"
"Because we like girls."
"so do I."

Then their confidence in their ability to persuade a lesbian kind of made me gag.
posted by numaner at 11:46 AM on August 1, 2019

Cage speaks.
posted by Etrigan at 10:52 AM on August 6, 2019