Nicolas Cage has starred in three films this year alone, including the critically acclaimed Pig and Sion Sono's genre-blender Prisoners of the Ghostland. But although the Oscar-winner is planning to take some time off in the near future, he has no intention of retiring from acting -- ever.
Cage spoke with Entertainment Weekly about Prisoners of the Ghostland, a film in which he plays a bank robber who's freed by a wealthy warlord, under the condition that he return the latter's granddaughter within five days or else the bombs strapped to his body (including, a pair next to his testicles) will explode. The movie premiered to mostly positive reviews at this year's Sundance Film Festival. As CBR's Reuben Baron wrote, "This post-apocalyptic East-meets-West semi-satirical surrealist adventure film will put a huge grin on the faces of anyone who can roll with its mix of glorious nonsense and genuinely interesting ideas."
"At my age, the job that I have is to stay interested, because if I'm not interested, you're not going to be interested. It gets more difficult the older we get," said Cage. "So I have to find new ways of expressing myself, new challenges. But I do think, God willing, that once I finish the next two movies, I'm going to take some time off, because I think it's time to recharge."
When the interviewer half-jokingly panicked about the idea of Cage retiring, the actor assured them, "No, no, no. No, no. That can't happen. To do what I do in cinema has been like a guardian angel for me, and I need it. I'm healthier when I'm working, I need a positive place to express my life experience, and filmmaking has given me that. So I'm never going to retire. Where are we now, 117 movies? [Laughs] What's funny is, my argument with people who go, 'You work too much,' was 'I like working, and it's healthy, I'm happy when I'm working, and by the way, guys like Cagney and Bogart, they were doing hundreds of movies.' And then I went, 'I'd better check that,' and I went, 'Oops.' [Laughs] Jerry Lewis was one of my friends, and he and I would go and have dinner together, and he would say, 'How many movies you got?' I go, 'I got about 100, how many you got?' 'I got 40. So you got twice as much as me?' 'Well, I didn't know that, Jerry.'"
Cage also talked about describing Prisoners of the Ghostland as the "wildest movie" he's ever made, which has since become the film's official tagline. "I'm surprised as you are that quote made it on the poster. I actually said that before I even shot the movie. I said it based on my interview with Sono-san, and reading the script, and looking at the storyboards for the movie. I said, 'This is the wildest script I ever read,' but then it became 'This is the wildest movie I ever made.' But that's fine by me. [Laughs] Go, man, go! If you want to use it, use it!"
Audiences can find out just how wild Prisoners of the Ghostland is when the film premieres in theaters and on VOD on Sept. 17.
Source: Entertainment Weekly