The Secrets Behind Nicolas Cage

Sorry, folks, I did want to but as in all (no exception) Hollywood interviews, you are not supposed to pry into the star’s personal life which they guard with ferocious possessiveness.

Face to face with Nicolas Cage at a function room of the Park Hyatt in Tokyo on a chilly November morning, I was tempted to ask him how it was being married thrice: To actress Patricia Arquette from 1995 to 2001, Lisa Marie Presley from Aug. 2002 to Dec. 2002, and to Alice Kim, a Korean-American former sushi restaurant waitress whom he married in 2005 and with whom he has a son named Kal-El (which is the birth name of Superman).

The closest that I got to being “personal” was ask Nicolas why he changed his surname from Coppola to Cage. Yes, he’s related to Francis Ford Coppola. I surfed the Internet and this was what I found: He was born Nicholas (take note: with an “h”) Kim Coppola on Jan. 7, 1964, in Long  Beach, California. His father, August Floyd Coppola, is Italian-American, a writer, a comparative literature professor and a pioneer of studies for the blind. His mother, Joy Vogelsang, is of German descent, a choreographer and ballet dancer who suffered from chronic depression. They divorced in 1996. Cage is the nephew of Francis Ford and actress Thalia Shire, and the cousin of Sophia Coppola. A Christian, Cage was raised a Catholic.

Cage began acting at age 15. Of his many movies, I remember him best for his award-winning turn in Leaving Las Vegas for which he won a Best Actor Oscar (same honors he got from the Golden Globe, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association).

And, of course, for the 2005 smash-hit National Treasure in which he plays Ben Gates, a historian and archaeologist who had to save the United States’ most precious national treasure, the Declaration of Independence, by stealing it from its Washington D.C. home.

Now, megahit producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub are bringing Gates back for another perilous adventure in Walt Disney Pictures’ National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (opening in the Philippines on Tuesday, Jan. 8). In his current globe-trotting adventures, Gates finds himself tearing between Washington D.C., Mount Rushmore, Paris and London in an effort to beat a shady antiquities dealer (played by Ed Harris) to a fabled, long-lost treasure and, at the same time, clear an ancestor’s name of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Again, Cage is working with stars of the original movie, including Justin Bartha, Jon Voight and Diane Kruger (who played Helen in the Brad Pitt starrer Troy), plus the formidable Helen Mirren (The Queen for which she won a Best Actress Oscar) as his mother.

It was National Treasure 2 that brought Conversations to Tokyo.

As far as I know, you don’t like to do a sequel. What’s so special about National Treasure that it made you change your mind?

“I’ve kind of steered clear of sequels in the past because I didn’t like the idea of repeating myself. But with National Treasure, well,  I like everybody I’m working with in the movie. And also, I like the places — London, Paris and the Black Hills in South Dakota — which I was able to photograph. But I think the most important thing is that my character Ben Gates and his group are able to go on a brand-new adventure. With every new treasure, there will be a new storyline and new historically accurate clues, plus new locations. So the sequel is almost a brand-new picture, only with the same characters and the same actors.”

What did you find intriguing about the story?

“In this movie, it seems that everything else has been changed. I remember how, in the ’50s, I enjoyed pictures like Sherlock Holmes; I really enjoyed watching those mystery movies. I thought Ben Gates could be another Sherlock Holmes but one who used his abilities in history and archaeology. So to me, he was a good match for a sequel. One of my beliefs is that you cannot do a sequel unless there’s a potential to do better than the original. That’s how I really felt that with this one, which is set against the Civil War and the Lincoln assassination. The history was even more dramatic and therefore more exciting.”

Does it help if you like the people you are working with, because sometimes you do have to work even if you don’t like everybody on the set?

“Yes, of course, it does — very much! Luckily, all of us had a good time working on the first one. Martin Sheen once said to me that all that really matters is whether or not you like the people you’re working with, and that you like the place in which you are working. Yes, I do agree with him.”

Did the sequel involve more research than did your previous movies?

“No. I mean, I try to do research when it’s required. With this sequel, I needed to have a photographic memory because I have to keep so many clues in my head.”

The movie has political overtones. Are you a political person?

“Well, my politics is personal; I generally keep it to myself. I try to express myself in my work. This movie, I guess, isn’t meant to be political; it just tries to entertain  people. I don’t think it tries to politicize anyone’s opinion in any way.”                                        

I’m sure there’s going to be a Part 3. But before that, may I ask you: How are you similar to Ben Gates? The character is supposed to be a nerd but you give it an entirely new perspective, a new dimension. How did you do it?                                                                            

“I don’t really feel that Ben is a nerd. I would rather use the word ‘square’ to describe him. He’s clean-cut. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he reads a lot of books, mostly history books. The one edgy element is that he’s willing to break the law if he feels it’s for the good of the majority. That’s probably one thing that he allows himself to enjoy — the adrenaline of sneaking into the White House and the Buckingham Palace. I think I’m like Ben in the sense that I do respect my ancestors and I do believe in history, that we can learn a lot from history. Like Ben, I genuinely do like being around historical places, places where events have transpired, that have relevance and weight. It’s almost like you feel you can time travel, and absorb vibrations of the past.”

Ben Gates also happens to be a highly-curious character, going to great lengths to uncover a secret. Would you do the same?

“It depends upon how much the secret means to me, you know. It depends upon what I’m trying to uncover, and if I feel that uncovering it will help people, then I will do as Ben does. Come to think of it, Ben is a criminal of sorts, but in a good way. He will go the extra step and take a chance, even to the extent of stealing the Declaration of Independence if need be, or kidnapping the President of the United States if need be, to get done what he feels is right.”

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were constrained to uncover a secret?

“No. I don’t remember any.”

 You were worried that you and your uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, might be accused of nepotism so you changed your surname. Why Cage of all surnames?                                                                        

“As silly as it may sound, Cage was a name that I came across as a boy reading comic books. You know  Luke Cage, the streetwise superhero in Marvel Comics? I just like the sound of the name. And then, I discovered the name again when I was in elementary school studying music with John Cage and I felt that the name may be simple but it is exotic. I wanted all those elements in my surname, so...that’s it!”                                                                                  

In acting, how much inspiration do you draw from your personal experience?

“It’s not so much inspiration as imagination.”

Jerry Bruckheimer and you have worked on so many successful projects. How do you make your team-up continue to click?

“Well, Jerry brings me on board a little later in the game. He and his team work on the script thoroughly and by the time I come around, when they are comfortable to show me the script, I start to look at the scenes and work on them immediately. With this movie, the scene that was the most critical for me was kidnapping the President of the United States — you know, how do you make that funny and at the same time believable? Also, was it that I was trying to charge him with to compel him to help me...would it make sense? I worked on that scene for three months before we actually shot it.”

Going back to politics...A lot of actors all over the world, including the US and the Philippines, are venturing into politics. Is there any possibility of you running for a public office?

“No. Definitely no!”

Which person, living or dead, would you like to portray in a movie?

“A role model, you mean?”

Well, in a way, yes.

“Well, I do find the forefathers of my country fascinating. Historically, yes, Thomas Jefferson is my role model and I would love to portray him in a movie.”

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