Nicolas Cage’s Real Treasures?
National Treasure
By Fred Topel
Perhaps audiences have the holiday season to thank for the diverse body of work Nicolas Cage has given them. The versatile actor has fit into every genre of film and every eccentric character Hollywood has thrown his way. The actor himself suggests that his creativity sparked at an early age, around this time of year.
"[It was] hands down the best Christmas present I ever got, because it was a tool to stimulate my imagination," recalled Cage. "I had a little toy car that was being driven by Pinocchio. For whatever the reason, Pinocchio's head fell off the day before Christmas. I guess I played with it a little too roughly. My father picked up the head and he went into the garden and he planted it. I thought, 'Why are you doing that?' The next morning there was this enormous thing that had grown in the garden. I ripped it open and it was a giant wooden Pinocchio. I was scratching my head trying to figure out how that grew. And then I started planting everything. I planted all my Hot Wheels. I had a little G.I. Joe slipper. I thought if I planted that, it would grow really big and I could put my sleeping bag in it. So he really got me thinking in an imaginative way at a young age."
Now that Cage has a family of his own, he hopes to spark their imaginations too. "This year I'm going to do something new. I'm going to have a Dickens Christmas. I'm going to take everyone to England. I've never done that. I'm going to just walk around Bath and see how they celebrate the holidays because I've always fantasized about that. When I'm in Bath, I feel like I'm walking around in a snow globe. I'm in this contained, beautiful historic universe. Everybody's really, really nice and I don't need to use a car and I can walk. The architecture is magnificent and I feel that I'm in touch with the past and world events and history. With a little imagination, I feel like I'm time traveling. I'm going to these other places and I'm learning something. It's helping me grow."
It is only recently that children have begun discovering the work of Nicolas Cage. Films like Raising Arizona and Moonstruck may have had their own followings, but were never the entertainment at middle school sleepovers. Even his mainstream success in the last 10 years came from mostly R-rated action movies like The Rock and Face/Off. However, the PG-rated National Treasure introduced a younger audience to his type of actor, who defies any genre category. Since, he has played a comic book super hero in Ghost Rider and a voice in the animated film The Ant Bully.
"Children, to me, are of the utmost importance. They’re really the future, aren’t they? So, I want to treat that carefully. I’m one of those people who believe that the power of film is intense, and you have to really think about it responsibly. In this case, you want them to enjoy themselves with mom and dad, or the whole family, and also get them to look in their history books in a way that isn’t, 'Oh, you must read, and you must learn.'"
His National Treasure character, Ben Gates, is a historical fortune hunter. The latest adventure has Gates finding clues in the torn pages of John Wilkes Booth's personal diary. The adventure takes Gates to Buckingham Palace and a temple beneath Mount Everest.
"It helps them to enjoy the ride even more because there’s a level of believability to it. You wonder, 'Wow, why are there missing pages in the Booth diary?' Then, you go see the movie and you can use a little imagination, and it makes the ride more enjoyable. I’m always thinking about the kids, if I make that sort of movie. Even with Ghost Rider, I was thinking about the kids. Walt Disney, for me, is a magnificent hero, of sorts, because he was probably the most influential artist of our time. He was such an influence that we don’t even think of him, sometimes, as a human being, but he did this amazing stuff. He took these great classic stories like Pinocchio, and Beauty and the Beast later, and Snow White and made them accessible to children.
With Ghost Rider, I was trying to do the one story he never did, probably for obvious reasons, which was Faust. I wanted to make that something where kids could go, 'Well, yeah, this is really just a myth. We’re all going to get in trouble, so how do you get past that?' So, I was thinking about them there too."
Movies are Cage's gift to the children of the world. It is his own children, from toddler Kalel Cage to teenage son Weston, who inspire his strict criteria. "Children, especially from one to six, are so impressionable. The main priority is just make sure they're happy as much as possible. That's the job, make them as happy as you can possibly make them in my opinion, because we know as they get older, things start happening. There are pressures and there are hormones and all of that, so in the beginning you want it to be just how happy can you keep them for that wonderful, magical period of time? That means movies that are positive. [Kalel] loves Yellow Submarine and he likes the Beatles and that music and the Wiggles and all that. That's great. There's plenty of time to discover the other stuff and I'm sure he will, if he's like all the rest of us in my family. But in terms of choices, I try to make movies that will hopefully do some good for the whole family."
Cage has toned down his own wild lifestyle to become a better father the second time around. "I think the main changes are that my priorities have improved. I started acting at a very young age, and I had interests which I won’t say are wrong, but I’m maturing. Motorcycles, and things like that, aren’t as important as they once were to me. And, I like a good book, and I like being in nature or on the water, and being with my family. I think those are just the real treasures."
While Cage has become expert at transforming into everything from a cockroach eating vampire to a suicidal drunk, National Treasure's Benjamin Gates is closer to the real Cage. Gate's heritage involves players in the nation's history.
"One of the things that comes to mind is ancestors. In a lot of so-called primitive cultures, there is a tremendous respect for our ancestors that we don’t see as much, for whatever the reason, in modern American culture. With Ben, I wanted to make it clear that, probably because his grandfather knighted him at such an early age, he took it to heart and really believes, in a chivalrous way, that everything he is, is on account of his ancestors. They’re not dead to him. They’re still there with him and he’s honoring them, and I like that about him. I try to embrace that in my own life. And, also, history. Because of playing Ben Gates, I really appreciate history now, and I also enjoy being in places where I feel the weight of past events. I like old architecture and old buildings, and if you use a little imagination, you can time travel."
Heritage played a major role in Cage's life also. Born into the Coppola filmmaking family, he changed his name to avoid suggestions of nepotism, but remained close to the artistic clan.
"I feel that it began with Carmine Coppola. We didn't come from money. He came here because he could play the flute and he joined Toscanini no less, Toscanini's orchestra and was the first chair floutist. The most beautiful thing that happened, just as a side track to that, but about two years ago, I was sleeping. The TV was on, it was on the arts channel, and I heard this flute and I woke up. It was my grandfather playing the flute and it was the Dance of the Blessed Spirits. I'm getting chills thinking about it. It was like he was talking to me. It was amazing. He was the beginning of our history in the arts and then he married a Pennino, my grandmother's family who were writing songs and she was a composer. Then from there, it just kept going. Francis and Sofia and Tali and everybody."
Gates also challenges the common wisdom, even when it means breaking the rules to prove the truth. Cage is careful how he asks his young fans to interpret that aspect of Benjamin Gates.
"I believe that there's a way to question authority with manners, with dignity. There's no reason to be rude about it. You can still say, 'I want some clarity here.' I don't want to get political, as I said, but yeah, the Book of Secrets, I don't know. It's an urban myth but I'm sure there are tons of things that are classified that we're not supposed to know for whatever the reason, that we'd probably like some answers on, sure."
National Treasure opens December 21, just in time for Christmas vacation.
National Treasure
By Fred Topel
Perhaps audiences have the holiday season to thank for the diverse body of work Nicolas Cage has given them. The versatile actor has fit into every genre of film and every eccentric character Hollywood has thrown his way. The actor himself suggests that his creativity sparked at an early age, around this time of year.
"[It was] hands down the best Christmas present I ever got, because it was a tool to stimulate my imagination," recalled Cage. "I had a little toy car that was being driven by Pinocchio. For whatever the reason, Pinocchio's head fell off the day before Christmas. I guess I played with it a little too roughly. My father picked up the head and he went into the garden and he planted it. I thought, 'Why are you doing that?' The next morning there was this enormous thing that had grown in the garden. I ripped it open and it was a giant wooden Pinocchio. I was scratching my head trying to figure out how that grew. And then I started planting everything. I planted all my Hot Wheels. I had a little G.I. Joe slipper. I thought if I planted that, it would grow really big and I could put my sleeping bag in it. So he really got me thinking in an imaginative way at a young age."
Now that Cage has a family of his own, he hopes to spark their imaginations too. "This year I'm going to do something new. I'm going to have a Dickens Christmas. I'm going to take everyone to England. I've never done that. I'm going to just walk around Bath and see how they celebrate the holidays because I've always fantasized about that. When I'm in Bath, I feel like I'm walking around in a snow globe. I'm in this contained, beautiful historic universe. Everybody's really, really nice and I don't need to use a car and I can walk. The architecture is magnificent and I feel that I'm in touch with the past and world events and history. With a little imagination, I feel like I'm time traveling. I'm going to these other places and I'm learning something. It's helping me grow."
It is only recently that children have begun discovering the work of Nicolas Cage. Films like Raising Arizona and Moonstruck may have had their own followings, but were never the entertainment at middle school sleepovers. Even his mainstream success in the last 10 years came from mostly R-rated action movies like The Rock and Face/Off. However, the PG-rated National Treasure introduced a younger audience to his type of actor, who defies any genre category. Since, he has played a comic book super hero in Ghost Rider and a voice in the animated film The Ant Bully.
"Children, to me, are of the utmost importance. They’re really the future, aren’t they? So, I want to treat that carefully. I’m one of those people who believe that the power of film is intense, and you have to really think about it responsibly. In this case, you want them to enjoy themselves with mom and dad, or the whole family, and also get them to look in their history books in a way that isn’t, 'Oh, you must read, and you must learn.'"
His National Treasure character, Ben Gates, is a historical fortune hunter. The latest adventure has Gates finding clues in the torn pages of John Wilkes Booth's personal diary. The adventure takes Gates to Buckingham Palace and a temple beneath Mount Everest.
"It helps them to enjoy the ride even more because there’s a level of believability to it. You wonder, 'Wow, why are there missing pages in the Booth diary?' Then, you go see the movie and you can use a little imagination, and it makes the ride more enjoyable. I’m always thinking about the kids, if I make that sort of movie. Even with Ghost Rider, I was thinking about the kids. Walt Disney, for me, is a magnificent hero, of sorts, because he was probably the most influential artist of our time. He was such an influence that we don’t even think of him, sometimes, as a human being, but he did this amazing stuff. He took these great classic stories like Pinocchio, and Beauty and the Beast later, and Snow White and made them accessible to children.
With Ghost Rider, I was trying to do the one story he never did, probably for obvious reasons, which was Faust. I wanted to make that something where kids could go, 'Well, yeah, this is really just a myth. We’re all going to get in trouble, so how do you get past that?' So, I was thinking about them there too."
Movies are Cage's gift to the children of the world. It is his own children, from toddler Kalel Cage to teenage son Weston, who inspire his strict criteria. "Children, especially from one to six, are so impressionable. The main priority is just make sure they're happy as much as possible. That's the job, make them as happy as you can possibly make them in my opinion, because we know as they get older, things start happening. There are pressures and there are hormones and all of that, so in the beginning you want it to be just how happy can you keep them for that wonderful, magical period of time? That means movies that are positive. [Kalel] loves Yellow Submarine and he likes the Beatles and that music and the Wiggles and all that. That's great. There's plenty of time to discover the other stuff and I'm sure he will, if he's like all the rest of us in my family. But in terms of choices, I try to make movies that will hopefully do some good for the whole family."
Cage has toned down his own wild lifestyle to become a better father the second time around. "I think the main changes are that my priorities have improved. I started acting at a very young age, and I had interests which I won’t say are wrong, but I’m maturing. Motorcycles, and things like that, aren’t as important as they once were to me. And, I like a good book, and I like being in nature or on the water, and being with my family. I think those are just the real treasures."
While Cage has become expert at transforming into everything from a cockroach eating vampire to a suicidal drunk, National Treasure's Benjamin Gates is closer to the real Cage. Gate's heritage involves players in the nation's history.
"One of the things that comes to mind is ancestors. In a lot of so-called primitive cultures, there is a tremendous respect for our ancestors that we don’t see as much, for whatever the reason, in modern American culture. With Ben, I wanted to make it clear that, probably because his grandfather knighted him at such an early age, he took it to heart and really believes, in a chivalrous way, that everything he is, is on account of his ancestors. They’re not dead to him. They’re still there with him and he’s honoring them, and I like that about him. I try to embrace that in my own life. And, also, history. Because of playing Ben Gates, I really appreciate history now, and I also enjoy being in places where I feel the weight of past events. I like old architecture and old buildings, and if you use a little imagination, you can time travel."
Heritage played a major role in Cage's life also. Born into the Coppola filmmaking family, he changed his name to avoid suggestions of nepotism, but remained close to the artistic clan.
"I feel that it began with Carmine Coppola. We didn't come from money. He came here because he could play the flute and he joined Toscanini no less, Toscanini's orchestra and was the first chair floutist. The most beautiful thing that happened, just as a side track to that, but about two years ago, I was sleeping. The TV was on, it was on the arts channel, and I heard this flute and I woke up. It was my grandfather playing the flute and it was the Dance of the Blessed Spirits. I'm getting chills thinking about it. It was like he was talking to me. It was amazing. He was the beginning of our history in the arts and then he married a Pennino, my grandmother's family who were writing songs and she was a composer. Then from there, it just kept going. Francis and Sofia and Tali and everybody."
Gates also challenges the common wisdom, even when it means breaking the rules to prove the truth. Cage is careful how he asks his young fans to interpret that aspect of Benjamin Gates.
"I believe that there's a way to question authority with manners, with dignity. There's no reason to be rude about it. You can still say, 'I want some clarity here.' I don't want to get political, as I said, but yeah, the Book of Secrets, I don't know. It's an urban myth but I'm sure there are tons of things that are classified that we're not supposed to know for whatever the reason, that we'd probably like some answers on, sure."
National Treasure opens December 21, just in time for Christmas vacation.
www.Dishmag.com / Issue 77 - September 2010
