Nicolas Cage names the only actor in cinema history as good as Marlon Brando: “And I meant it”
The cult of Marlon Brando has grown so vast and all-encompassing that there’s a high chance the legendary method man is your favourite actor’s favourite actor, with Nicolas Cage just many to worship at the eccentric star’s altar.
Of course, the maestro of Nouveau Shamanism isn’t one of the many who’ve lifted their tactics and techniques from Brando, but the two have been compared. Ethan Hawke is adamant Cage is the first and only person since the two-time Academy Award-winning icon to have brought anything new to the art of acting, and it’s impossible for any aspiring thespian of his generation not to look to Brando for inspiration.
Cage may have drawn his techniques from an array of eclectic influences that span centuries, but Brando was one of them. Ask any legendary actor who they think the greatest of all time is, and there’s always going to be one name that comes up more often than not.
For Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, John Goodman, Kurt Russell, Tom Hardy, and countless others, it’s Brando. In the eyes of many, he has no equals in the past, present, or future of cinema, but Cage went out on a limb and revealed that one unexpected actor was the only person who could hold a candle to the Godfather, On the Waterfront, and A Streetcar Named Desire figurehead.
“Jerry Lewis, I met Jerry once,” he told Rotten Tomatoes. “We became friends later, but when I first met him, he knew what a fan I was of The Nutty Professor, particularly the Buddy Love performance. I said to him, and I meant it, I said, ‘Jerry, it’s just you and Brando.'”
How did Lewis react to being called the only performer who could hold a candle to Brando in the annals of the moving image? Typically self-deprecatingly. “He took about a two-minute pause, and he went, ‘Well, Brando’s good also,'” Cage recalled. “It was hilarious. He was wearing a kimono, if you believe that, a Japanese kimono and tennis shoes.”
There must be something in the water when it comes to The Nutty Professor, with Lewis originally convincing Cage that the leading man, co-writer, director, and producer of the 1963 version existed in the rarefied air that was only occupied by Brando, while Eddie Murphy believes his turn in the remake is the best of his entire career bar none.
Many superlatives were lobbed at the multi-hyphenated talent who earned the nickname ‘The King of Comedy’ from his peers and legions of adoring fans, but Brando-esque wasn’t one of them. Cage definitely thinks he’s on par, though, even if Lewis’ name isn’t one that comes up too often when the conversation turns towards those who exist in the elite upper echelons of acting excellence.
