I’ve got a new “Anatomy of a Scene” video for you to watch today from The NY Times. The video features Tom Gormican, the director of the meta Nicolas Cage action film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, breaking down how Nicolas Cage parodies himself in the film. He focuses on one scene from the film and he offers some great insight that fans of the film are sure to appreciate!
Here’s the note that came along with the video:
Here, Cage, who plays the fictionalized version of himself named Nick Cage, is spending time with a superfan, Javi (Pedro Pascal). Javi has paid Nick to be his guest for his birthday. Reduced to taking such gigs instead of parts in major Hollywood movies, Nick has reached a low point in his career and has decided to give up acting. But Javi won’t allow that, creating a performance exercise with Nick that forces him to showcase his craft.
Discussing the sequence, Gormican said that Pascal had a lot of weight on his shoulders. “He had to act like a bad actor as the character,” he said, “but not bad enough that it would yank you out of the scene.” For his part, Cage delved into his screen history to deliver dual levels of self-parody, including a tongue-in-cheek line from “Con Air.”
At the scene’s end, the two characters leap from an 85-foot cliff, a moment that Gormican accomplished with two stunt performers who did the leap twice while five cameras were rolling to capture it.
If you haven’t watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent yet, you need to check it out! It’s an awesome and entertaining flick that was made for Cage fans!