Although actor Nicolas Cage has made dozens of movies over the past few years, it’s been nearly a decade since he appeared in anything that might reasonably be referred to as “mainstream.” In the intervening period, he’s become more meme than man, with his image morphing into a kind of cultural shorthand for eccentricity. Cage’s latest performance as a reclusive truffle hunter in Michael Sarnoski’s “Pig” doesn’t exactly break the trend, but it’s garnering attention as his quietest and most introspective in recent memory.
In an interview with Variety this week promoting the film, Cage compared the character to his own disillusionment with Hollywood. “I do feel that I’ve gone into my own wilderness,” Cage admitted. “I don’t know if I’d want to go back. I don’t know if I’d want to go and make another Disney movie.” The last live-action feature the actor made with a major studio was Marvel Entertainment’s “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” in 2011.
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Cage went on to talk about his frustrations with the filmmaking process on big movies, and why he’s skeptical to return. “When I was making Jerry Bruckheimer movies back-to-back, that was just a high-pressure game,” he said. Cage was referring to “The Rock” and “Con Air,” projects that initiated his mid-’90s transformation from quote-unquote “serious” actor to idiosyncratic action hero. “There were a lot of fun moments, but at the same time, there was also, ‘We wrote this line. It has to be said this way,’” Cage recalled. “They’d put a camera on you and photograph you, and order you: ‘Now say the roller skate training wheels line.’ I’d say, ‘I’ll do that but I’d also like to try it this way.’”
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After one too many negative experiences on major studio sets, he began to take a different tack. Since 2011, Cage has appeared in over thirty independent films, nearly half of which have been released direct-to-VOD. It’s a career approach some might liken to a white flag. But Cage sounds more than content to work off the grid. “On independent movies, you have more freedom to experiment and be fluid,” he explained. “There’s less pressure and there’s more oxygen in the room.”
From comments like these, it seems unlikely Cage will be making “National Treasure 3” anytime soon.