The actor who intimidated Nicolas Cage: “It took me three weeks to get used to looking at him”
As much fun as he is on the outside, it must be an unsettling experience to work with an actor like Nicolas Cage. The star is famously erratic and prone to bizarre behaviour in order to generate his trademark memorable performances. While a lot of his outlandish actions are harmless, if you’re a fan of stability, don’t hang around with the guy who keeps several cobras as pets.
This unusual approach to acting has come to define Cage across his career, naturally earning him just as many fans as it has detractors. Just ask some of the other big names that have shared the screen with the mad genius. He once called out Jon Voight on a film set because he thought his ego was running wild, much to the legendary performer’s horror. Occasionally, however, things go the other way, and Cage is the one left quaking in his boots.
Speaking with Salon, Cage reflected on co-starring with an absolutely huge name in Hollywood history. “Working with Sean Connery was a blast, because he came on the set and he was, uh, Sean, and it took me three weeks just to get used to looking at him,” he said. “But he was incredibly giving and dignified, and I learned so much from working with him. He was mentoring me.”
Cage is referring to his time working on The Rock, the Alcatraz-based thriller from director Michael Bay. He stars as a chemical weapons expert, with the unlikely name of Stanley Goodspeed, who gets drawn into a plot surrounding a jaded general who has occupied the famous island prison and is using it as a base. His only hope is John Mason (Connery), a British ex-soldier and the only man to have escaped Alcatraz and lived to tell the tale.
Though Connery hadn’t played James Bond officially for two-and-a-half decades (Never Say Never Again doesn’t count), his name still demanded a huge amount of respect. He was the original Bond, the man who launched one of (if not the) biggest film franchises of all time. He had undergone something of a career renaissance in the 1980s, even winning an Oscar for his role in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables. The Rock would turn out to be one of the last big hits in the Scotsman’s career, before he gave up acting altogether off the back of his regrettable appearance in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
It turns out that Cage was absolutely right to be slightly scared of his colleague. On the set of one of his earliest films, Another Time, Another Place, Connery was confronted by the mobster Johnny Stompanato. The gangster was dating Lana Turner, the female lead of the movie, and suspected she was cheating on him with the actor. Stompanato pointed a gun at the star, only to have it knocked out of his hand! As it turns out, Connery was highly skilled in karate and sent his assailant back to the underworld with his tail between his legs.
As frightening as Connery could be, Cage seems to have nothing but good things to say about him. He couldn’t have asked for a better mentor than a man who had done and seen it all, even if he could probably break your arm at a moment’s notice.
