Nicolas Cage is really one of the few bankable actors left that can actually act. Bringing the same detailed work that made him so admired in smaller films to big budget action/adventure films, has been surprisingly successful. In a world where action stars used to say there was no time for character development, Cage has completely proved them wrong. His fantastic turns in films like THE ROCK, CON AIR, and FACE/OFF have been commercially successful, while still giving consummate actor Cage room to create a character.

In NEXT, he plays Cris Johnson, a man who has the ability to see two minutes into the future. He uses his gift on stage in Las Vegas for a lounge act (so Cage!) and manages to stay under the radar, until the FBI catches wind of his power. He soon finds himself being relentlessly pursued by the FBI, which is seeking to use his abilities to prevent a global terrorist threat and he is ultimately faced with the daunting choice of saving himself or the world. Cage talked a bit about NEXT, creating memorable characters and what’s going on with the overdue GHOST RIDER.

Nicolas Cage

What appealed to you about NEXT?

When I first read it, it was a bit different then it was when I re-read it after the powers that be had worked on it for about six months.  But the initial interest was that I had not done a film that had science fiction undertones to it before and I’m always of the mind to try to explore a little bit of everything, being an eclectic type of person, so that was intriguing to me, seemed like a new frontier to me.  I was a fan of Philip K. Dick, I like his pedigree and the notion of trying to make real a character who can see two minutes into the future, make that real for an audience, seemed very exciting to me.

So why only two minutes?

There really isn’t any rhyme or reason to it; it’s just the way he was born.  And he has this and he’s clocked it out to two minutes and it’s only what affects him, he’s not a god, he can’t see what’s going to affect other people outside of his field of vision, it’s only what affects him.

What kind of spin did you put on NEXT to make it a Nic Cage kind of project?

Well, I mean I’m not the sort of fellow who really wants to broadcast my own contributions, but as I said when I re-read the script there were a lot of changes made and it occurred to me that I needed to do something to revitalize the character.  And specifically, I’ve been thinking a lot about the notion that there are people who may or may not have powers and what would you do if you were born with powers that could be, possibly very terrifying and uncomfortable for others around you.  For example, seeing into your future.  So it occurred to me; how would I play that part and what could I do with that part that would seem real and also protect the character from being labeled a freak?

So I thought, well, he could hide in plain sight, he could be a magician, in Vegas. (smiles)  And these people, sometimes you see them and you go how did they do that.  So my thinking was, have him use the magic act as a disguise for the reality, which is that he really does have powers.  So that was the main thrust of the change that I made, and I’m very excited by it, I think it’s working really well.  And I’m blessed to work with Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, they’re both doing a great job.  I have to admit, it was a bit of an adjustment for everybody, cause I just went to screen test in a tux with ruffled shirt (laughs) to play a magician.  So everybody’s like whoa, what are you doing, what is this, I’m not sure I want to be in this movie.

With such an impressive and eclectic body of work, how have you managed to maintain the craft of acting?

I’ve never lost interest, I’ve always seen myself as a student and I always think there’s something I can learn.  And that’s why I push myself in different genres as well.  The main thing is to really stay true to one’s self and that’s what I try to live by, I try not to worry too much about what others may think about my choices.  And hopefully if I can maintain an amount of truth in my work, there will be a connection with the audience as well.

While there may be some elements to the film you could easily just walk through, what has been the most difficult stuff to do?

I don’t think that I would ever want to walk through anything, but I do think there’s something to making things appear easier.  In a sense, anything forced on film is death, so you have to try to find a way of make things effortless.  But the challenge here again is, you can’t really walk through a movie when you’re playing a guy who can see two minutes into the future, it’s a whole new kind of geography for a personality type.  And it really is theatre of the imagination; I have to imagine what that would be like, what that would entail for a character, how that would impinge on his life.  And that’s why the magic act came in.

And also, it occurred to me that Cris Johnson would be somebody that really be interested in unusual natural phenomenon, because he is an unusual natural phenomenon.  So he would have an interest in natural history, he would have an interest in bizarre incidents; he would have an interest in the supernatural science itself, anything that could help explain his condition.  And so he’s always spout these, even religion, he’s always spouting little excerpts of smatterings of things he’s learned.  And so I’m sort of bombarding Jessica Biel with all these little tidbits of wisdom.

How much of Nic Cage is in this character?

I try to put a little in every role, I mean it is by some definition me or some expression of me.

But is this one more so then some of the other characters you’ve played?

Maybe now, because as I’m approaching my 25^th year in the business, I think I’ve relaxed into trying to bring as much of my experience to each part, so it rings true.  Even when I’m doing material where I’m not as quote, unquote singer/songwriter about it, I’m doing other people’s dialogue.  I try to find a way to fill those words interpretively that will have some sense in my own life experience.

Did you start your own production company to do your own thing and have more creative control?

Yeah, in some ways, part of it, definitely.  And in other ways, I was interested in inviting other people who I was excited by their talents, inviting them to the party so to speak.  Even if I didn’t star in the movie, I wanna put Willem Dafoe with John Malkovich, people who that I think should be working together, but hadn’t seen working together, it’s the other hat I wear as a producer.

What do you see as the enduring appeal of Philip K. Dick’s stories?

He’s edgy.  And he’s uncompromised.  And his life is interesting, from what I’ve read about it.  This is a man who allegedly heard the TV going when the TV wasn’t plugged in.  And then his wife, after he passed on, said yeah, well actually I heard it too. (laughs)  That’s pretty powerful stuff, however you want to look at it.  There is no doubt that he’s inspired and he’s a unique voice in his writing and it translates well to film.

And what about the genre of science fiction appealed to you?

It’s very broad based, open minded and some of my favorite writers come from science fiction, Anthony Burgess, H.G. Wells.  And it was something that, again, I hadn’t done before, so it thought this was a chance to learn.  But the more I think about, the more I want to mix it up.  My base is drama, my skeleton is dramatic films and dramatic characters, but I am very excited by the possibilities of the imagination going into other stylizations and genres.  GHOST RIDER is an adventure film that deals with the supernatural and this one deals with science fiction and all of it to me, gives me a whole new playing ground to have, to work with and that keeps me interested.

Being a comic book fan, was doing GHOST RIDER a dream come true for you?

Yeah, I mean cause of all the characters, I feel like that’s the one that we really haven’t seen anything quite like yet.  And it’s new territory because he deals with the spiritual as well as the physical world.  And that’s pretty complex stuff for a comic book character.  Also he’s a lot of fun, the character Johnny Blaze, the way we kind of all designed him, he’s a fun character and I wanted to bring a little humor to it as well.

Is the film completely finished, as there was talk of re-shoots?

Yeah, they were just tweaking certain things towards the end.  The reason why the movie was delayed, I know that’s been on people’s minds, is there was some effects that finally got authorized by the studio, which Mark (Steven Johnson, director) really wanted and they’re pretty big and it took time to put them together and design them, so we had to delay it.  I think it’s good because it’s something we really wanted to fight, with GHOST RIDER going into battle with a helicopter.  (laughs)

Are you contractually obligated for any sequels?

No, I’m not contractually obligated for sequels on anything, I won’t do that.  I’ll never say never, but I am happy that I haven’t made any sequels to this point and if I do a sequel, I’m gonna have to know for sure that the script is better then the original.  So I’m gonna be very careful about that, cause I’m not eager to repeat myself.

Any desire to direct again?

Absolutely.  I’m happy with the way my directorial debut (SONNY) has been received over time.  At first, because of the subject matter being pretty taboo, I don’t think people understood it and that’s okay.  It’s interesting, I just talked to James Franco this morning and we were both kind of happy with the different responses we’ve received because of its life on cable television and DVD.  So I thought wouldn’t it be great to do something together again and I’m actively looking for something to work with James on.

Let me say again, that this was by far the coolest set visit I have ever been to. Big action sequences, stunts and flying bullets galore, and a virtual who’s who of big name stars. I’m going to be watching this one with much anticipation and can’t wait to see what’s NEXT!

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