“It’s magic”: The acting performance Oliver Stone called “transcendent”
Known and loved for his fearless storytelling, themes of genuine provocation and commitment to examining the more difficult facets of society and history, Oliver Stone is one of American cinema’s most significant names, as proven by his excellent filmography.
With the likes of Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK and Natural Born Killers to his name as a director, Stone has been afforded to work with some of the most talented actors, including Willem Dafoe, John Hurt, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson.
Having worked with some of the greatest actors of all time throughout his career, one might think that Stone would know exactly what makes up a great performance, but in an interview with The Guardian, the director explained that there could be a wide range of reasons for a brilliant on-screen effort.
“If I could put it in a saltshaker…” he began. “It’s worked on, it’s magic, it’s a combination of things. A good actor with great charisma can be in a bad piece but still be charismatic. The ideal is to give an idea that inspires the actor, that raises him, so that he goes and takes his natural born charisma and does something with it that no one’s ever seen before. That’s the goal of most directors.”
There’s an element of luck and timing as to whether an actor delivers or not in a given film, according to Stone, and he went on to explain how Marlon Brando, “as great as he was”, often refused to cooperate with his directors, which led to a handful of performances that were undoubtedly beneath him.
The actor-director relationship is, therefore, a “collaboration” in which both figures depend on one another. It’s organic,” Stone said. “But it doesn’t happen all the time. You work, and you work, and then it does happen. There are those moments that shine.”
As far as moments that indeed shine, Stone was keen to point out the performance that Nicolas Cage gave in his 2006 docudrama disaster film World Trade Center. Based on the experience of a group of New York City police officers trapped at the bottom of the titular building amid the September 11th attacks, Cage plays Sergeant John McLoughlin, a veteran of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
“He doesn’t have much to operate with, and here plays a sour man who very rarely smiles, but towards the end of the movie, when he lets the light into his eyes, and he goes to the edge of death and fights for life, he just flickers back,” Stone said of Cage’s performance. “He sees the spirit of his wife, and then he meets her in the hospital – I’m just so moved by that, that’s one moment where Nic becomes transcendent. But he worked on that very hard.”
Cage has managed to give countless brilliant performances throughout his career, from the crazed alcoholic intensity of Leaving Las Vegas to further brilliant appearances in the likes of Raising Arizona, Face/Off and Mandy, but it’s his 2006 effort in World Trade Center that seems to have captivated the attention of Oliver Stone the most, although there might be an element of bias present.
Check out the trailer for World Trade Center below.
