“They are real”: Nicolas Cage’s indignance over accusations of CGI abs
Nicolas Cage is a big, big fan of superheroes.
Not only was he rumoured to be part of a Superman project that never saw the light of day, but one of his children is called Kal-El, the real Kryptonian name of the ‘Man of Steel’. He has successfully managed to play comic book characters, too, lending his voice to a film-noir version of the world’s most famous webslinger in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and standing as a strong candidate for ‘father of the year’ in Kick-Ass.
All the 2000s kids out there are probably wondering where a certain flame-headed motorcycle rider is on that list. Well, wonder no more! Cage played Johnny Blaze in two Ghost Rider movies. He got really into the character, a regimen that included acquiring the traditional superhero shape. He put a lot of work into his body, but sadly, it would all be for nought.
In the years since Cage showed off the goods (which you can see in the clip at the end of the article, if you’re so inclined), rumours have swirled that the impressive body bumps didn’t belong to the actor. Some claimed that they were added in post via the magic of CGI, so in 2022, 15 years after Ghost Rider first hit screens, he set the record straight in an interview with GQ.
“They are real,” he definitively confirmed, “That’s why I will never work out that hard again because nobody wanted to believe they were real. They wanted to believe it was CGI, which it wasn’t. So, what’s the point?”
Cage has explained numerous times that his Ghost Rider body was achieved by nothing more than good old-fashioned exercise. Well, and a few tricks. He admitted that he didn’t eat anything on the day of the shoot, which allowed for more definition. The only thing he consumed that day was candy corn sugar, which apparently makes you more vascular. Perhaps these conspiracy theories stem from the fact that the SFX team had to digitally remove tattoos from Cage’s body. His co-star Eva Mendes didn’t help matters when she said that she would have thought his abs were fake if she hadn’t seen them herself.
One of the primary questions raised by ab-deniers was Cage’s age. At the time of release, he was in his early 40s, which is not traditionally the age at which one becomes absolutely shredded. However, as the years have gone on, we’ve seen more and more middle-aged fellas give themselves cheese grater abs in the name of superhero cinema.
Hugh Jackman was in his mid-50s when Deadpool & Wolverine came out, and he looked like he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. He’s even had to deny using steroids to prepare for his role as the cigar-chomping mutant.
The biggest question I have about the CGI truthers is why they would ever doubt Nic Cage. The man is a lunatic. If anybody is going to push their body to superhuman limits at the same age that most blokes have a beer belly and a bad back, it’s going to be him.
