Nicolas Cage names his earliest acting heroes
Since his debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, Nicolas Cage has grown into one of Hollywood’s prolific actors. What’s more, he’s left his very own unique mark across multiple genres, beginning in romantic comedies and most recently in horror with Longlegs. His dedication to not being typecast keeps the audience on their toes and yet wanting more.
Now, at 60, he is undoubtedly an actor young artists look up to. When he started his career at 17, who did he look up to? Who led the path to Cage’s becoming the actor on screen today? Speaking to John Millar for Eye for Film, Cage said that growing up, he envisioned himself in adventure films starring icons like Charles Bronson. Popular for his “tough guy” look and action films like Once Upon a Time in the West, Bronson was a hero for Cage.
Further committing his admiration for Bronson, Cage revered Once Upon a Time in the West as one of his favourite films. “I think his performance as Harmonica is arguably one of my top five favourite performances ever because he was able to convey so much and do so little, and it looked like he meant it,” he said about Bronson’s performance.
Also on his list of actors in adventure films was Hong Kong-American martial artist Bruce Lee. Lee played an integral role in popularising martial arts movies in Hollywood and is still an irreplaceably popular figure worldwide. Cage, linking Lee to his own career exploits, discussed how Lee influenced his performance in the 2018 film Mandy during a Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival. “It became reality that there was such a thing as a superhero,” he said, referring to Lee in Enter the Dragon. “But then, he was an actor, and he was also a dancer. His facial expressions have always kind of been a part of my library of things I wanted to do in film performances.”
Elsewhere, Cage noted that his favourite scene in Mandy was a neck-break, also inspired by Bruce Lee. However, this is not the only film in which Lee influences Cage. Speaking about John Woo’s 1997 thriller Face/Off, he said, “When I shoot the Castor Troy character with the harpoon, my face goes through all these expressions. That was a direct steal from Bruce Lee when he jumped on a guy and killed him with his feet”.
Cage’s adventure movie heroes do not end there; he also highlights Clint Eastwood as an early idol. Eastwood is most famous for his roles in westerns like The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, but more specifically, his catchphrase in Sudden Impact. His character, Harry Callahan, says, “Go ahead, make my day,” while shooting robbers, making it a memorable one-liner.
Cage reflected on parodying this quip in Simon West’s 1997 film Con Air. He wrote the line “Put the bunny back in the box”, thinking, “’How can I take that tradition, make the ‘Make my day’ so ridiculous? What can I come up with that will become my ‘Make my day’?”. His admiration of Eastwood went beyond the genre and to the specifics of making memorable characters.
As Cage grew older and navigated his career, he found inspiration in actors like James Dean and Robert De Niro, who motivated him to carve out his own path as a distinctive actor. Dean, who began his career with the Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan in East of Eden, tragically died in a car accident at 24, yet he remains a pop culture icon. Cage, who recalled watching East of Eden at age 15 for an interview with Deadline, discussed how he felt deeply connected to Dean’s emotions as his character experienced a nervous breakdown on screen. This performance made Cage question if he could ever reach that level, but it also motivated him to try. In a conversation with Empire, Cage expressed that Dean was taken too soon and poignantly remarked that he would have “liked to see some of his mistakes”.
Looking back at Cage’s career, which has spanned over 42 years, it is not surprising that his acting heroes are not limited to one genre. His self-declared eclectic tastes and need to stay uncomfortable have made him who he is – an interesting and unpredictable artist.
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