Bad Lieutenant
Nicholas Cage is one of the busiest men in Hollywood having already got the success of Kick Ass under his belt he is back this week with Bad Lieutenant.
The movie sees him team up with filmmaker Werner Herzog and reunites him with his Ghost Rider co-star Eva Mendes.
A rogue detective is as devoted to his job as he is at scoring drugs -- while playing fast and loose with the law.
He wields his badge as often as he wields his gun in order to get his way. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina he becomes a high-functioning addict who is a deeply intuitive, fearless detective reigning over the beautiful ruins of New Orleans with authority and abandon.
Complicating his tumultuous life is the prostitute he loves. Together they descend into their own world marked by desire, compulsion, and conscience.
- What was it about Bad Lieutenant which initially attracted you?
I was up for the challenge of it, the risk of it. I’m at a point now where I need to look for work that keeps me interested, keeps me excited about acting.
"I know Harvey [Keitel], and thought he was excellent in the first Bad Lieutenant, and felt that Abel Ferrara directed a great movie.
"With Werner and this script, I thought we could take the original Bad Lieutenant and make it a much more abstract film. And New Orleans itself - I have a very close connection with this city. In many ways, I was reborn here; became a philosopher here.
"It‘s the city that woke me up to the possibility of other ancient energies and that is both a blessing and a curse. I’ve made four pictures here and this is my fifth.
"I was afraid to come back and do another movie, but when I’m afraid to do something, I know I have to do it. I have to face the fear, get over it and work through it. These are the main reasons.
- I was told you chose the setting for this film. Can you talk about this?
I chose New Orleans for the reasons I previously expressed, and it’s a city like nowhere else in the world.
"We have a Bad Lieutenant in New York, and because this is a new movie entirely, Bad Lieutenant Port of Call: New Orleans, let’s give it a cultural twist that we haven’t seen before.
- What was it like to make a film with Werner Herzog?
Werner had come to me in 1995 to do Cortez, and I had just come off of Leaving Las Vegas. I was being very selective about what I was going to do and not do, and when Cortez came across my desk, I didn’t feel it was wise to play this dictator who was pretty horrific.
A lot of actors who play Manson or Hitler, you don’t see them again, and I didn’t want that to happen to me. I was also much younger then. I would have a different way of looking at it now.
But to get back to Werner I grew up watching his movies, and my father and Werner are friends. My father is a huge admirer of Herzog’s work, as are some of my colleagues, and they all recommended that I do it.
I really like Nosferatu, Aguirre: Wrath of God and Stroszek. Those are pictures that stand out. I thought it would be good to work with him.
I’m always looking for a new way to express myself. I just did a picture in Bangkok with two Chinese brothers and an all-Thai crew, because I thought they would bring a ‘new me’ out.
When you’ve acted for 30 years, you have to find new ways of reinventing yourself, and if you can’t find it on your own, you have to go to strange places and see if they can find it for you.
Now, I’m working with a German, a great artist, to see what his sensibilities are. What can he see in me, what can he bring out?
Bad Lieutenant is a self-generated motor. Werner knows this and we’ve worked well together because of this. He lets me do what I need to do, and I let him do what he needs to do.
Bad Lieutenant is released 21st May.
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