Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage has found himself the subject of several viral memes, whether it’s posing awkwardly with the First Lady of Kazakhstan or a visual riff on his last name.

But promoting his new violent revenge drama “Mandy” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Cage revealed to MarketWatch that he loathes social media.

At various stages during a colorful 35-year acting career, Cage has played the indie cult hero (“Raising Arizona, “Wild at Heart”), quirky rom-com lead (“Moonstruck”, “Honeymoon in Vegas”) and action star (“The Rock”, “Con Air.”)

Recently he seems to be gravitating to playing outlandish wild men in extreme revenge dramas such as “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “Dog Eat Dog.” In ”Mandy”, which also stars Andrea Riseborough and Linus Roache, Cage plays Red Miller, a man in the primal wilderness who violently retaliates against a mad religious cult leader who has joined forces with a local biker gang to slaughter the love of his life.

But while Cage is reveling in portraying bizarre unhinged antiheroes, he doesn’t want to adopt any type of online persona. “I hate social media,” Cage said. “I’m from another time. I’m kicking and screaming. I don’t have Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.”

“I wanna maintain whatever golden age, mysterious aura I can keep because I don’t want to be a part of that club. I think it’s working for me. Can you imagine me after two bottles of wine with a Twitter account?”

Cage added that online connection is nothing compared with the human kind. “Everything is a tweet now,” he said. “It’s disappointing, especially for someone like me. I wanna meet people, I want to have a conversation. I’m not interested in Instagram!”

Cage, 54, reportedly blew a $150 million fortune and paid $6 million to the IRS in 2012; his net worth is now reputedly down to $25 million.

Cage said that while money men and women in Hollywood are increasing in influence, the trend is hardly new. “Look at Orson Welles aged 25, who had total authority on “Citizen Kane,” he said. “Then the money men came in and kept recutting his movie and dropping scenes and the reasons why he made movies got undermined. So it’s always been like this.”

Cage said his career purpose is to be “somebody who was really looking for the truth in film performance” and that he is now “taking care of myself and having wonderful experiences making movies like “Mandy.””

Andrea Riseborough, Cage’s co-star, has four film performances at the Sundance Film Festival. As well as “Mandy”, she’s appearing in the acclaimed drama “Nancy,” political satire “The Death of Stalin” and the Klu Klax Klan drama “Burden.” She said for all the violence and gore in “Mandy,” the film is hitting a nerve with Sundance audiences: “People respond deeply to authenticity and it’s valuable to make work like that rather than something that is putting bums on seats.”

Somewhat surprisingly given its genre, “Mandy” is currently the best reviewed movie at Sundance, carrying a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

PARK CITY, UT - JANUARY 19: Actors Linus Roache, Andrea Riseborough, Director Panos Cosmatos Nicolas Cage attend the "Mandy" premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival Dia Dipasupil/ Getty Images

Director Panos Cosmatos says the fact that Donald Trump is president made his film more relevant. “I think this movie has more resonance now than when I first started writing it because one of the themes of the film is what can be the grotesqueness and monstrosity of the male ego and how it manifests in a destructive way,” he said.

Riseborough added that she was encouraged by the increase in the number of films directed by women at Sundance and felt things were changing for the better in the movie business when it came to gender parity, even if it wasn’t always for the purest reasons. “The really positive thing about now is people are being held accountable,” she said.

“They’re aware that they have to hold themselves accountable to investing in diversity, not only by paying lip service to it but financially investing in it. They have to tick certain boxes and whether their morals are in line with that or not, I don’t really care as long as they give me money to make female films!”