Nicolas Cage Talks G-Force

4 December 2009

2009 has been another busy year for Nicolas Cage with Knowing, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and Disney 3D movie G-Force under his belt.

The movie follows a team of trained secret agent guinea pigs that takes on a mission for the US government.

A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire, who plans to taking over the world with household appliances

Why did you decide to sign up for a family movie like G-Force?

I try to keep my choices eclectic and I like to explore different characters in different genres, so I was really interested in the idea of G-Force when it was pitched to me. I feel that there’s nothing more sacred than the magical world of children and I wanted to work on a movie like this because there’s a need to keep children smiling in the world.

Families are tense and people are losing their jobs because of what’s going on in the economy, but I want to make movies that give families something to look forward to.

I like the idea of giving a child a smile on their face and I want to entertain them. G-Force has helped me do that.

How would you describe Speckles, your character in G-Force?

Speckles is an iconoclast. He is a mole who never really feels like he belongs. He’s a loner who tries to fit in, but he finds it very difficult because of the way he looks and the way he talks.

He’s carrying a lot of angst inside because his family was exterminated off a golf course when he was a small child and he wants retribution.

How did you come up with the voice of Speckles?

Voice actor Mel Blanc was a huge inspiration to me. This one man voiced characters including Yosemite Sam, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig and it takes a great actor to do that. I wanted to try to channel that energy in some way and be creative, but play with it.

I didn’t want to do a simple voiceover with my regular voice; I wanted to create a character vocally. I also didn’t want to play a guinea pig.

The guinea pigs are the heroes of the movie, so I felt there would be more pressure for me to use my own voice. The mole had a look about him that I knew would allow me to be a bit more bizarre.

There are a lot of spy gadgets in the movie. Are you a fan of technology?

I’m not really gadget oriented. I’m not into technology or computers. I’m not good at interfacing with that sort of gear.

But you must own a cell phone at the very least?

Oh, sure. I use technology for communication, but I don’t have a Blackberry or an iPhone. I use an outdated cell phone, but I’m fine with it.

What’s your ring tone?

I have Lou Reed singing Take A Walk On The Wild Side. I’m living in New York at the moment and it’s a quintessential New York song. I think it’s very appropriate.

When was the first time you realized you wanted to act?

I knew I wanted to be an actor when I was very young. I guess I was about six years old at the time and I was fascinated by television. I started having waking fantasies where I was in a movie and there were crane shots of me during a scene.

I would literally see the point of view of the camera going down and following me along the street as I walked home. I had it all sorted out in my head at a very young age. I think I knew right away that I wanted to be an actor.

Was your uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, much of a mentor at that stage?

No, not at all. He wasn’t aware of my interest in acting until much later in my life.

Why did you decide to lose your last name, Coppola?

Well, I thought the name was an obstacle in the beginning. It got too much interference from other actors and casting agents and it didn’t allow me to relax into what I knew I was meant to do.

I couldn’t concentrate on my work because I was being teased for who I was, being a nephew of Coppola, and I was not taken seriously. People didn’t believe that I could be in a movie for any other reason than I was related to my uncle, so I had to believe in myself and I had to change my name.

The idea for G-Force came from the son of the movie’s director, Hoyt Yeatman. You also work closely with your son on the comic book, Voodoo Child. Do you find it easy to bounce ideas around with your own children?

Yes, I do. Voodoo Child is something that we worked on many years ago, but my son, Weston, had that idea percolating for a while because we used to go to New Orleans together when he was growing up.

We always had this fascination with different cultures and different beliefs. He created this comic book character out of his experiences in New Orleans and we’re hoping it will be turned into a movie at some point.

Would you or your son take on any roles in the movie?

Definitely. We already have it sorted out. He would play the bad guy and I would play the detective. That’s how it would work.

What is it you like about New Orleans?

I’ve always had an interest in Louisiana especially New Orleans. I’ve been very fortunate because I was lucky enough to shoot a movie called Bad Lieutenant in Louisiana a while ago.

Why did you sign on for the remake of Bad Lieutenant?

I felt that if you’re going to recreate Bad Lieutenant, then you had better find something new to do with it. I didn’t want to play a New York cop because that’s already been done, so we tried something else.

A New Orleans cop is a very different kind of energy than a New York cop, so it worked and it seemed right.

Did you enjoy working with Werner Herzog on the film?

No one else is quite like Werner. He has a completely different energy altogether. He’s very grandiose and my experience of working with him was everything I hoped it would be. He’s not like any other director I’ve worked with before.

By way of example, he does his own slate. He’s in the middle of everything on set and he makes eye contact with everybody: the actor, the cameraman and the sound department. He’s got a real eye.

In fact, I call him a visionary genius. He’s something very special indeed. I like Werner a lot. I think he has a good sense of humor and he has a different way of looking at things than other people.

Would you like to work with him again?

It’s funny you should ask this question because I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago about working with him again.

I would love to play King Ludwig who is famous for his Bavarian castles in a movie directed by Werner. I said that we should try to find a way to do it because it’s a great story. I hope it works out.

G-Force is out on DVD now.