When Nicholas Cage crashed a Nicholas Cage film festival
Nicholas Cage has been dividing cinema-goers for years. For some, he’s the man who turned mania into a fine art; for others, he’s the perfect example of Hollywood pomp. Whatever your opinion of the Hollywood actor, you can’t deny he’s one hell of a showman, as fans were reminded during 2017’s CAGED, an annual Nicholas Cage film marathon held in the Alamo Drafthouse, Austin.
CAGED is held in celebration of Nicholas Cage’s birthday every January. The festival, which features screenings of carefully-selected Cage films, was designed as a homage to one of America’s most notorious actors, whose career has spanned over 40 years. Back in 2017, the CAGED audience was wishing their idol a happy birthday when the man himself walked through the door and took to the stage. The Face/Off actor then proceeded to sit through a marathon of his own movies, which included Bangkok Dangerous, Joe, Bring out Out the Dead, Army of One and Lord of War, the last of which was chosen by Cage himself.
Following the screening, Cage then treated the audience to a 47-minute question and answer session. But that still wasn’t enough for Cage, who followed the Q&A with an increasingly dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story The Tell-Tale Heart. Cage said in a video shot after the ten-minute reading: “I’m thrilled to say I made it to CAGED. This is the fourth, uh, incarnation of CAGED and I wanted to do something special, my way of saying thank you, so I did a cold reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart, which influenced my work because I used to read it when I was a child and it, uh, gave me all kind of nightmares,” Cage said, chuckling at the thought. “I think I was trying to make movies on some kind of level to get to that feeling in some of the more manic performances.”
The next ten minutes were the perfect example of Cagian exuberance. As the actor grew increasingly red with passion, he didn’t merely tuck away the pages of the story; he cast them aside with a sweep of his hand. Fans were stunned. Cage had been invited to the three previous iterations of CAGED, but had never made an appearance. Then, in true Cage style, he arrived out of the blue. Thankfully, somebody had the foresight to capture the whole thing on film.
Make sure you check out the footage below.
