How the repeated desire for self-mutilation convinced Nicolas Cage to star in a terrible movie
The reasons for Nicolas Cage starring in so many terrible movies over such a long period of time are well-known, but it wasn’t as if his habit of signing onto cinematic dreck was born entirely from his financial troubles.
Having evolved from the eccentric darling of independent cinema into an Academy Award-winning powerhouse before transitioning into his action-hero era, at the peak of his powers, Cage was a bankable star who’d grown accustomed to success. However, a string of poor choices saw a number of cracks appear in his armour, with his filmography suffering from a number of notable flops long before he started slumming it in the VOD arena.
The self-styled nouveau shaman of acting was already on a gradual downward slope in the 2000s after lending his undoubted talents to such turgid bores as Ghost Rider, Next, Bangkok Dangerous, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. However, there were occasional bright spots to be found along the way through the likes of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Kick-Ass, and the comedy gold of The Wicker Man remake.
Still, Cage had taken it upon himself to decree that comes hell or high water, he was going to star in a movie where one of his eyeballs was forcibly removed from its socket. He pitched it to the producers of the forgettable fantasy horror Season of the Witch, in which he and Ron Perlman undertook a supernatural post-Crusades buddy adventure, only to be denied.
Never one short on confidence, when Cage was approached to star in Patrick Lussier’s Drive Angry, he decided to shoot his shot for a second time. When asked what drew him to the project in the first place, the leading man admitted to Dread Central that it was the unyielding desire to spend at least part of the running time under cycloptic circumstances.
“Initially, what I was attracted to was the idea that I was gonna get my eye shot out,” he said in a statement that sounds ludicrous but makes perfect sense coming from Cage. “On Season of the Witch, I wanted to get my eye shot by a bow and arrow, and the producers didn’t go for it.” Fortunately, Lussier wasn’t of a similar mind and was happy to have him take a bullet right through the ocular passage.
When it was agreed that he’d finish the story with fewer eyes than he had going in, it was a no-brainer. “I don’t know why, but I immediately said, ‘Yes, I’m in!” Cage continued, reiterating that “it’s as simple as that.” Drive Angry tried to bring exploitation-style cinema to the masses and failed, enduring only as a box office bomb that was trying too hard to be shocking and failed miserably. Still, at least the star got to lose an eye, which was all he ever wanted.
