The actor Quentin Tarantino said made a career “out of being miscast”
If there’s one Quentin Tarantino knows more than most, it is cinema. Tarantino is one of the most influential auteurs in Hollywood history, complete with a distinctive style that perfectly represents the collage of inspirations that is the postmodern spirit.
A keen lover of cinema since he was young, Tarantino draws upon his influences and some of their most well-known aspects to create a style that is unmistakably his own. A master of the visual answer to sampling in music, his work is an intricate patchwork of references and his own vivid imagination that work together to create an audio-visual experience unlike any other. Love or loathe the American’s work, it is impossible to deny that he is an astute filmmaker.
Given that the Pulp Fiction creator is cinema’s resident cherrypicker, he has commented on a range of prominent figures in his time. From hating a classic movie so much that it convinced him to retire early to naming Tony Scott’s Unstoppable as “maybe the greatest film of the 2010s”, Tarantino is full of fascinating takes. His views shed more light on the inner workings of the mind behind many modern classics like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
One man who has always divided opinion but gets the seal of approval from Quentin Tarantino is Nicolas Cage. Famed for his roles in the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, Cage has also had minor appearances in his uncle Francis Ford Coppola’s films, such as Rumble Fish and The Cotton Club. Since then, as a veteran actor, he’s shown his talent in projects such as of Mandy and Pig.
However, for every movie of genuine quality that Cage has starred in, there have been multiple creative slip-ups, regardless of the blockbuster success, with projects such as Con Air, Snake Eyes, Ghost Rider, and the universally panned 2006 remake of The Wicker Man all blotches on a vast CV.
Regardless of Cage’s somewhat perplexing casting choices over the years, Tarantino thinks he always displays “fearlessness” as he has made a career “out of being miscast”. The director told Jim Hoberman: “I don’t think that I’ve ever seen another actor in the history of film that made a career of being miscast and rising to the occasion.”
Cherished by many an auteur, it’s not just Tarantino who admires Nicolas Cage. During an interview with the Washington Post just after the release of Wild at Heart, David Lynch dubbed him “the jazz musician of actors”, clearly pointing to his dynamism.
Watch Nicolas Cage in the trailer for the upcoming Dream Scenario below.
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