Nicolas Cage fans all know that this Oscar winner is a very versatile actor who never shies away from putting emotion into his characters. But one of the actor’s trademarks is when he tends to go very over-the-top with the most Nicolas Cage-y movies he’s ever done like Matchstick Men, Face/Off, and Vampire’s Kiss. Someone made a viral video of all of the movie meltdown moments Cage portrayed in his career, and the American actor and producer had something honest to say about it.
Seeing Nicolas Cage at his Cag-iest is truly a gift for audiences. He could be laughing hysterically, putting on exaggerated facial expressions, or straight-up yelling to make his roles all the more entertaining. Cage’s performances attract audiences so much that one fan took the time to compile a viral video called Nicolas Cage Loses His Shit featuring the Renfield actor’s key movie meltdown moments. According to EW, this talented actor spoke at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival’s post-screening Q&A of his new movie Dream Scenario about his honest feelings toward the viral video of himself.
What happened to me, I think I might've been the first actor who woke up one morning and somebody had put a montage of me, meltdown moments, cherry-picking from different movies, and then put it online. I think it was called Nicolas Cage Losing His S---. It went viral overnight around the world, I kept going, 'What is happening to me?'
I can imagine the shock he must have felt seeing himself in a viral video made by a stranger. From watching the viral video myself, I’ve got to say those were a lot of cringe moments that were hard to watch. With Requiem For a Dream’s Lux Aeterna playing in the background, this video which achieved over a million views in the past decade shows every Cage-y moment from his best and worst films. You see him going full-on ballistic with his exaggerated cries, screaming, rants, and everything else that has made the Coppola family member as memorable as he is today. If it was hard for me to watch, picture how it must have been for him.
It’s clear that Nicolas Cage is not a stranger to the performance antics audiences know him for. He did, after all, decide to play himself and recreate his classic movies in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. While the popularity of this video may have been an overwhelming experience for the Golden Globe winner, he didn’t leave it at that. Instead, The Wicker Man actor used Harry Hanrahan's compilation video to help him get into character for his next big role.
It kept exponentially compounding on itself and getting bigger. Nothing I could do could stop it. I couldn't stop it legally, I couldn't stop it any way. I sat there and it started going to this meme-ification, with Photoshopping.... I said, well, I've got to put this somewhere, and then I read Dream Scenario and I said, yes, now I can turn this lead into a little bit of gold.
When you think about it, Nicolas Cage has the trending video to thank for giving us one of his best performances in the bizarre comedy Dream Scenario. A24’s latest movie stars Cage as an out-of-luck professor who becomes an overnight success for having a cameo in everyone’s dreams. Based on the surrealist comedy’s trailer, it looks like we’re bound to see some more of Nicolas Cage being his Cag-iest self like we want him to be. As his character goes viral for standing around in people’s dreams, Cage could use that real-life experience of going viral from a compilation video to wow audiences. So far, critics who saw Dream Scenario at TIFF were impressed with the Screen Actors Guild winner’s performance noting his dialed-down moments only made his comedic scenes all the more special.
The most viral moments of Nicolas Cage may have been out there for the world to see for the past ten years, but the mega-talented actor hasn’t let the movie meltdowns broadcasted in the video bring him down. Instead, this could be the tool he needed to give us yet another unforgettable performance. You have the chance to watch the 2023 movie release of Dream Scenario in theaters on November 10th.
