Nicolas Cage names the best actor to play James Bond: “He had an ease in that role”
A largely misunderstood lunatic with an appetite for chaos, guns, and women: James Bond and Nicolas Cage are one and the same. Cage has bedazzled, beguiled, and baffled audiences for decades, starring in umpteen movies of varying success and surrealism.
His range is matched only by his dedication to onscreen anarchy, and many consider him to be a voice of genuine artistic prestige within an industry crying out for individuality and true creativity. With that being said, it stands to reason that on the subject of 007 and the age-old question, ‘Who played him best?’ Cage’s opinion can be held in quite high regard. But then again, he did spend almost $300,000 on a dinosaur skull, so who really knows?
Talking candidly to the author David Sheff, Cage made his feelings about his favourite Bond actor clear, stating, “Connery was the best by far. He had an ease in that role that no one has touched”. This is a sentiment that many James Bond superfans agree with wholeheartedly, and before the dawn of Daniel Craig and his infamous teeny-tiny swimming shorts, would be hard for many to argue against.
Cage continued in his interview, saying, “Of course, part of it was the times. Now, you can’t do a lot of what he did in those movies. If you were to smack a woman’s behind to send her out of the room, you would be in big trouble. He didn’t have to worry about being politically correct”.
He somewhat controversially continued: “But for all the talk about how sexist that early Bond was, every woman I know thinks Sean Connery is the greatest thing that ever happened. So he’s doing something right.”
Sean Connery starred in seven Bond movies, from 1962 to 1983, when he was cast as Kim Basinger’s father in Never Say Never Again. Connery was the formative Bond, and so for many, it has always been hard to shake the image of his overtly suave and seductive portrayal from their minds. But as Cage suggests, maybe that is because that’s what James Bond is.
He is not a likeable character; he is a killer. He’s also a drunk, a misogynist, and a loner, but somehow, through all of that, he is arguably cinema’s coolest cat to many. Bond is a sexy assassin with as many character flaws as he has tailored suits, and nobody can deny Connery’s depiction of this.
Cage’s opinion is, of course, just a personal take and one that never fails to divide the population. Is it the calculated and well-researched opinion of a cinematic genius? Or is it a flippant and lazy exclamation by an unhinged madman posing as a Hollywood actor? Just like the question of who the best Bond is, the answer to that question is ambiguous and impossible to answer. Now imagine for a moment that Nicolas Cage was cast as 007…what a ride that would be.
