With writer-director Michael Sarnoski’s Pig now playing in select theaters, I recently spoke to Nicolas Cage about making the fantastic film and delivering another brilliant performance. If you haven’t seen the trailer, Pig is about a truffle hunter (Cage) living alone in the Oregon wilderness who must return to society in Portland when his beloved foraging pig is kidnapped. While this could have easily turned into a wild ride, and featured an over the top performance by Cage, what I loved about his understated performance is the way he pulls you in and makes you feel the pain his character is carrying inside. If Pig is playing near you, I strongly recommend checking this film out. Pig also stars Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin, Nina Belforte, Gretchen Corbett, Julia Bray, Darius Pierce, and Elijah Ungvary.
During the interview, Cage talked about why he wanted to be part of this project, what he drew on to inspire his performance, how he prepared for the role, and the way food would be presented in the film.
However, before the conversation was over, I had to ask Cage about playing himself in director Tom Gormican’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. If you haven’t heard of this movie yet…sit down and get ready to have a smile hit your face. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent stars Cage as surrealistic version of himself that ends up at a dangerous superfan’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party when he’s offered $1 million dollars. According to the synopsis, “things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones.”
I could not be more excited to see this film which arrives in theaters April 22, 2022.
But if you're going to the premiere, don't expect to see Cage. Because even though Cage praised the script, he said he’ll probably never watch the film.
“Because the idea of going meta and playing a "surrealistic version of myself" and a "surrealistic version or interpretation of a younger version of myself going head to head," might just be too psychologically invasive for one Nicolas Cage.”
While I get that, hopefully the reviews will be extremely positive, and he’ll change his mind. Check out the interview in the player above or you can read the full transcript below.
COLLIDER: Sir, how are you doing?
NICOLAS CAGE: Good. It's good to see you again. How have you been?
Everything is going great when I get to talk to you.
CAGE: Oh, that's very kind.
I mean that so sincerely.
CAGE: Well, we've had some good interviews in the past, I thought.
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It's hitting me right now that you realize who I am and that to me, is crazy. I'm just throwing that out there as a huge fan of your work. Let me jump in and say Pig is fantastic and you are so great in this role. I'm curious, what was it about this project that said, I want to do this, this is important to me?
CAGE: It was a screenplay that I thought was written with great sincerity. It had no other motivation than to just tell a quiet story of loss. There were things about it that reminded me of a Japanese haiku, meaning that five, seven, five syllables, that what was said between the syllables was as important or more important than the words themselves. It was a very evocative screenplay. Michael was a director who wanted to tell a different kind of story. It was a meditation of sorts on loss, and I was at a point in my own life where it was like no acting, please. I have close relationships with my animal brothers and sisters, my cats, my dogs. I would sometimes get bad dreams about losing my cat. We've all become very close to our animals after what we'd been through with the pandemic and quarantine. I didn't feel like it would be a huge challenge to play this role, that it would come out just very easily because I felt I had the relationships and the life experience to tell this story. That's what drew me to it.
I love learning about the behind the scenes of the making of a movie. Is there anything that you think might surprise people to learn about the making of Pig?
CAGE: I don't know about surprised per se, but I do think that a tremendous amount of thought went into conveying the joy of making a dish, a culinary and Epicurean experience that can communicate emotion. I had two excellent chefs to work with, Chef Chris, Chef Rucker from Le Pigeon. They spent some time with me. I'm very passionate about food. It's what I'm interested in. Food, for me, always came first, then music, then film performance but food, to me, it's something I have great respect for, and the regard for food on a spiritual level of the power of food. I think that came through, especially in the filmmaking process that Michael had great regard. He had me read Marco Pierre White, The Devil in the Kitchen, and that was very effective. A lot of thought went into the food itself and how it would be presented.
I have to tell you that one of my most anticipated films in the upcoming future is something with you, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. I could not be more excited for that film. If I could see it tomorrow, I would pay money. What can you say about that project because it sounds awesome?
CAGE: Well, I think what I can say about the project is that everybody involved, Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten, Pedro Pascal, everybody came into it with genuine passion and care. Nobody pulled their punches or tried to sweep anything under the rug. Everything was approached with tremendous care. Having said that, I will probably never see the movie myself because the idea of going meta and playing a "surrealistic version of myself" and a "surrealistic version or interpretation of a younger version of myself going head to head," might just be too psychologically invasive for one Nicolas Cage. I can tell you that it came from the right place from all of us, and it has a lot of heart and the movie means well. I know that much.
I heard the script was awesome.
CAGE: It's a great script and it created quite a bit of a bidding business war. That part, I don't get involved in. It was very evocative. For whatever reason that I can't explain, it's inexplicably to me, but nonetheless, it is what it is and it happened. I will have to hear from you, what you think of it and I will go to the premiere, but I'm probably not going to be sitting in the audience.
I completely get it. I mean, this sincerely Pig is fantastic and I really hope people come out to see it because you're work in it is so good.
CAGE: Thank you very much. I'm happy to speak with you again.
Pig is now playing in theaters.
