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For an entire generation of movie fans, their first introduction to Nicolas Cage likely came on YouTube via the infamous, iconic “Nicolas Cage Loses His S—” montage.
And for about a decade or so, that’s all Cage was: a meme. Now, however, the former Best Actor winner has made it through to the other side and is now, once again, a both widely respected and beloved actor.
Speaking to The Guardian for a new interview — his new film Dream Scenario has received permission to do promotion has the studio has agreed to SAG-AFTRA’s terms — the 59-year-old spoke about the “meme-ification” of his work and career.
“I might have been the first actor who went through a kind of meme-ification,” Cage said.
“I didn’t understand how to process what was happening. I got into acting because I was moved by film performance more than any other art form. I didn’t get into movies to become a meme. That was new. I made friends with it but it was an adjustment. I thought maybe they would compel someone to go back and look at the movies. But I had no control over it.”
When our Post Credit Podcast interviewed Cage back in 2022 prior to the release of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the Academy Award-winning actor expressed a similar sentiment.
“Because the Z-Generation is the now, but it’s also scary because I worry about things like attention span and what’s happened to me in terms of the meme-ification, which has been both positive and negative,” Cage explained.
“Positive in that these memes have enabled people to give me another life in terms of, ‘Well, that’s an interesting expression,’ but it loses the context of how the character got to that point in the first place. Although maybe it will inspire people to look at the full two-hour movie to see how the character got to that place,” he said.
Cage’s newest film, A24’s Dream Scenario, will be hitting theaters on Friday, November 10. In addition to Cage, the film also stars Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula and Dylan Baker.