Ahead of his highly anticipated — at least, anticipated by us — new semi-autobiographical(?) film The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, GQ Magazine sat down with all-time great tinsel town icon Nicolas Cage to discuss his one-0f-a-kind career. In between his thoughtful responses and insights into the ups and downs of celebrity life, we learned some very, very interesting facts about the most interesting man in Hollywood.
1. He like to relax in his kung fu suit.
Nicolas Cage greets me at his door, wearing a kung fu suit.
“This is my Wing Chun kung fu suit,” he explains, waving me in and handing me a mug of coffee. “I studied with my sifu, Jim Lau, when I was 12 years old, because I was a big Bruce Lee fan. And so it’s like my uniform to relax in.”
2. He sometimes mistakes his cat for his wife.
…he is a cat. A Maine coon named Merlin. “He’s so kind and so loving,” Cage tells me, more than once. “Sometimes he puts his arm around me when he’s sleeping, and I think it’s my wife, and I go, ‘Oh, Riko.’ And then it’s Merlin.”
Cage’s pet cat is a Maine coon name Merlin. Cage explains that Merlin is “so kind and so loving.” When they are sleeping, Merlin puts his arm around Cage, to which Cage willingly admits he sometimes thinks it’s his wife. We’re not sure what’s more alarming, that his cat sleeps with his arms around Cage, or that Cage’s wife apparently has a similar build to a cat…
3. (Spoiler alert) He suggested that he kiss himself in Unbearable Weight.
He even pushed the envelope further at times. In one scene, Cages young and old make out with each other. “That was Nick’s idea,” [director Tom] Gormican told me. “He was supposed to kiss him on the cheek, and he was like, ‘Oh, I’d like to French kiss.’”
4. He takes his career very, very seriously.
“He’s deeply focused,” Unbearable Weight director Tom Gormican said. “He would elliptical from 3 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. every morning and read the rest of the script, and then send me a list of questions, thoughts, notes, and ideas for the day’s scene work.” The movie’s co-writer, Kevin Etten, called him “probably the hardest-working actor I’ve ever witnessed.”
Throughout the interview, Cage shares that while he enjoys acting and most of the movies he’s done, he takes his work very seriously. The crew of Unbearable Weight praised his acting abilities, calling him “probably the hardest-working actor I’ve ever witnessed.” He even wakes up 3 a.m. — that’s the middle of the night, people! — to read through scripts, ask questions and understand his characters on deep, deep levels.
5. He brings his own knife to a steakhouse.
“And he brings his own knife to the steakhouse, which I think is very cool. You go out to have a steak with Nick, and he unfolds this amazing hand-carved knife to be his cutlery.”
David Gordon Green, who directed Cage in 2013’s Joe, shared that Cage often likes to discuss his characters in depth. But then he goes on to share that Cage brings his own knife to steakhouses. Listen, we understand wanting things to be done a certain way, but we have to assume the steak houses Cage frequents has a least one decent knife to use. Green doesn’t explain why Cage does this, but it does add to his mystery.
6. He has the “liver of a 13-year old choir boy.”
“You’ve got to be healthy,” he adds. “My doctor says I have the liver of a 13-year-old choir boy, you know?”
We have so many questions about this because this is a very specific reference for a doctor to make. What does he mean by this???
7. He may work with Francis Ford Coppola again very soon.
He may reunite with his uncle for the first time since 1986’s Peggy Sue Got Married—they’re talking about a small role in Coppola’s upcoming epic Megalopolis.
People often forget that Cage is literal Hollywood royalty, the nephew of one of the finest filmmakers of all time (Cage dropped the last name in an attempt to go the only way Nicolas Cage goes: his own. He went with “Cage” after the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage). Nothing is official yet, but there’s a chance uncle and nephew could reunite for movie magic once again. While we don’t know if this is moving forward, we do know Cage still has a massive career ahead of him.
