Nicolas Cage says his Mandy performance was inspired by Friday the 13th

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The upcoming supernatural thriller MANDY from director Panos Cosmatos features Nicolas Cage as a man who lives with the love of his life in a cabin in 1983, who who seeks vengeance on a religious cult after a tragic home invasion. The film has been playing at festivals since the start of the year (read our Sundance review HERE) and has garnered a ton of hype as a result. If you've seen the trailer you can see why. The film looks batshit amazing and I wouldn't miss it for anything. Well, maybe free doughnuts. Otherwise, I'm there. While Cage tends to pad his current starring roles with some direct-to-video fluff, there's always a 1-for-5 breakout hit such as MANDY (thankfully, cause we love that Cage) and he revealed to EW that there was some very familiar inspiration for part of his performance in MANDY that rhymes with Ki ki ki, ma ma ma…

“It was a good chance to go through a narrative and have a transformation of sorts. Before he drinks that supernatural drug, or whatever it is, his fighting style is more ferocious, is more cat-like and feral. Whereas after the drug, there’s a transformation where he becomes almost like a golem, the ancient Jewish golem that was a supernatural statue that came to life. And I think Panos wanted that, he wanted me to be almost like Jason-esque, you know, from those horror films that were so popular. Panos and I really both decided what the graph of the performance would be. How much more Jason-esque is he there? Or like a statue there? We built this both together.”

Even as Cage continues to churn out the forgettable flicks, I'm super happy that he's still able to find himself in reputable films as well. Hey, I know what it's like. We all have bills to pay, am I right? Cage also voiced Superman in TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES and is voicing Spider-Man Noir in SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE later this year.

MANDY hits theaters on September 14th.