It’s interesting to see how director Werner Herzog’s career has evolved in recent years, penetrating into the mainstream world of pop culture with a pivot to acting work on things such as “The Mandalorian,” “Jack Reacher,” “The Simpsons,” and even something as oddball as “Rick & Morty” (to be fair, he keeps cranking out docs and films, they just haven’t had the same cultural reach as late). The 81-year-old filmmaker turned actor is now making the press rounds to promote his new memoir “Every Man For Himself & God Against All” and is giving nothing but praise to one of his more infamous actors, Nicholas Cage.
Speaking with Seth Meyers on his NBC late-night show, “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” Herzog got animated when his experience working with Cage on his bonkers crime thriller “Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans” (a remake of the equally insane NYC-set film from director Abel Ferrara and starring Harvey Keitel as an unhinged drug/gambling addicted cop). Herzog praised the actor and seemingly was elated Cage still ranks the experiences of ‘Bad Lieutenant’ up there as one of his best, including alongside his Oscar-win for “Leaving Las Vegas,” where Cage plays an alcoholic with a death wish.
“Nicolas Cage had been interviewed about it, ‘What is your favorite performance?’ and he says one, ‘Bad Lieutenant’ with me. And nothing, and then comes the performance in ‘Leaving Las Vegas.’ It was so wonderful to work with him, such a great-great actor, and I loved every minute with him, and it was wonderful.”
It would be nice if the two reunited for another equally insane project, but that’s undoubtedly just wishful thinking, and it all depends on the cinema gods giving us another prospect for them to partner on. You can watch that exchange between Meyers and Herzog below; he also mentions wanting to make a version of “Hamlet” with auctioneers to get the runtime down to 14 minutes making one of the more hilarious pitches concerning a Shakespeare adaptation. That’s certainly something that could use some Nicolas Cage energy.