The director who created the myth of Nicolas Cage: “The time that I found my voice”
Over the years, Nicolas Cage has worked with almost every great director in Hollywood. He plied his uniquely singular trade for Martin Scorsese in Bringing Out the Dead, the Coen brothers in Raising Arizona, Ridley Scott in Matchstick Men, Werner Herzog in Bad Lieutenant, and David Lynch in Wild at Heart. However, Cage cites none of these luminaries as the director who first helped him find his voice. In fact, he is adamant they created the myth of “Nicolas Cage” as we know him today.
In the early 1980s, a 17-year-old Cage auditioned for Fast Times at Ridgemont High under his given name, “Nicolas Coppola”. He got the role, and even though it was a blink-and-you ‘ll-miss-it part, he felt his Hollywood career had been given the kickstart it needed. Unfortunately, the deluge of work he’d been hoping for didn’t come to pass, and he found himself splitting his time between his grandmother’s house and living in his car.
During this period, an unsettling thought began to form in the young Cage’s head. He began to worry that his surname was actually stopping people from hiring him, instead of encouraging it. You see, his uncle was Francis Ford Coppola, the iconic director of The Godfather, and he’d already been teased on the set of Fast Times about it. In 2023, he told NPR that he knew his peers felt, “I had no right to think that I could act simply because of my illustrious uncle.”
Feeling that the Coppola name was holding him back, the young actor decided to see if he could make it on his own terms. Inspired by the Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage and the composer John Cage, he changed his stage name to “Nicolas Cage”. Under this new moniker, he soon auditioned for the film that would change his life.
When Martha Coolidge was casting teen comedy Valley Girl, she became bored of the endless parade of Hollywood pretty boys auditioning for the lead role of punk rocker Randy. Then she saw a headshot in the reject pile, and it captured her attention. She called the goofily handsome young actor in for an audition, with no idea that he was Coppola’s nephew.
Cage told NPR, “She cast me as ‘Cage.’ It was the first time that I went into an audition with my new name and I got the part, and that was hugely empowering for me to believe I could do it on my own steam.”
Playing a punked-up High School lothario proved an ideal testing ground for Cage, who had already been thinking of a Plan B if he didn’t get the Valley Girl job. He admitted, “I was going to do one more audition, and then if that didn’t work out, I was going to get on a boat and go fishing and write short stories.”
Thankfully, it did work out, and Cage found someone in Coolidge who opened his eyes to what he was capable of as a film actor. He mused, “I think Valley Girl was really the time that I found my voice. And I have to give Martha Coolidge credit. Without her, Nicolas Cage would not exist.”
He added, “I think if Martha had not discovered me, I would be on the boat.”
What did Coolidge do that was so important to Cage, though? Well, instead of tamping down his natural tendencies as an actor, Coolidge empowered him to experiment with the role. With her guidance and direction, he began to gain the confidence and belief that he could be a good actor but also one who marched to the beat of his own drum.
In a 2003 DVD special feature, Cage thanked Coolidge for her integral role in shaping his career. He said she gave him “a sense of dignity as an actor” and told her, “You discovered this surrealistic interpretation of myself, which is Nicolas Cage.”
