In 1990, John O’Brien published his first novel, Leaving Las Vegas. The book is about Ben Sanderson, a hollywood screenwriter who decides to get rid of his possessions, sell what he can, and drive to Las Vegas where he will drink himself to death. During this slow suicide in the desert, Ben meets a prostitute named Sera and they become romantically entangled. Even with Sera by his side, Ben continues to drink and dies by the end. In 1994, John O’Brien’s novel would be made into a film starring Nicolas Cage and Elizabeth Shue. O’Brien killed himself two weeks after hearing this news.

O’Brien’s tale is largely based on his own life. While writing his second novel, The Assault on Tony’s, he almost lost his job at a cafe and he destroyed his marriage because of excessive drinking. His alcoholism started before writing Leaving Las Vegas. Getting turned down by publishing companies was the catalyst to his addiction and depression. Unfortunately, O’Brien couldn’t function without alcohol by the time he was getting some acclaim. In 1994, weeks before his death, O’Brien was sent to the hospital after getting beaten up. The doctor informed him that if he didn’t stop drinking, he would die. In the end, O’Brien would die form a self-inflicted bullet wound and not his alcoholism.

Nicolas Cage would win an Academy Award in 1996 for his role as Ben Sanderson in Mike Figgis’ film adaptation of Leaving Las Vegas. Cage stated that this prestigious award had finally given him validation for the years he pushed himself. After the film cleaned up all the awards at The Los Angeles Critics’ Circle, Cage stated, “The success of a small, 16mm movie about a very bleak subject shows I wasn’t crazy all these years, that I had a point” (Robb 115). Cage, who normally demanded four million for roles, played Ben Sanderson for $240,000. Figgis didn’t have a lot of money to make the film (only $3.5 million) because he wanted to make his movie, not a studio’s. Cage, who was infamous at that point for doing things his way, wanted desperately to play Sanderson. He stated he would’ve acted for free because this anti-Hollywood part appealed to him. Cage started eating junk food and fast food to lose the muscle he gained for his part as a thug in Kiss of Death, which just finished filming.

It all worked out. As soon as the credits end at the start of the film, we see Nicolas Cage pulling bottles of alcohol off a shelf, whistling and bouncing. A man self-destructing, not afraid to die. We get everything about who Cage is as an actor in this one scene — he uses his body to portray more about his role than any dialogue, he’s not afraid of dark material, he’s dedicated to the look of his character and he’s going to have a great time. This pasty, sweaty, balding person on screen is a genius.

Coppola to Cage

Nicolas Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola in 1964 to August and Joy Coppola. His father had a PhD in Comparative Literature and created a new way to teach blind students: “He invented the ‘tactile dome’, a sensory aid which allows blind people to experience their surroundings other than through sight, which is now on display in San Francisco’s science museum, the Exploratorium” (Robb 9). The dome was displayed in 1971 and it is the size of a weather balloon where people navigate a dark maze for an hour and fifteen minutes. In the darkness, the participants touch materials and shapes that change and contrast. The only way to get to the end is through touch. It still is part of the museum.

Nicolas’ mother, Joy, suffered from extreme depression and bi-polar disorder, and had to be put into hospitals regularly. She would go in for electro-shock therapy, and Nic had to visit her in these institutions as he grew up. “‘Sometimes she would go into Rip Van Winkle mode and forget everything that had happened. Even when things got really bizarre, I was able to detach and look at it with a scientific curiosity. I’m sure it had some impact on me, though. Maybe her illness was behind the nightmares I had’” (11). His mother was the center of many of these nightmares. These night terrors combined Cage’s mother with insects, including cockroaches. It’s not reaching to say that Joy’s mental disposition contributed a small amount to Nicolas’, although he claims it had little effect on him. “I remember sitting on the living room floor and watching TV and trying to figure out how to get inside the TV — to become one of those characters in the TV. I had a very active imagination, and it was my protector in that I think I had a wonderful childhood” (Schruers 93).

August Coppola’s brother was Francis Ford Coppola, the director, and because of that, August was quite jealous of his brother’s success. As a Literature Professor at Cal State Long Beach, a writer, and eventual dean at San Francisco State University, August didn’t get the praise his brother did. August’s resentment toward Francis was seen by Nicolas and maybe in the end, it was why Nicolas found that path so delightful.

Nicolas started acting way before he first big role. When he was in elementary school, bullies beat him up and take his snacks away. One day he put on some Ray Ban sunglasses, his older brother’s clothes, and he combed his hair back. He stuck some chewing gum in his mouth and swaggered onto the bus in cowboy boots. Nicolas then told the bullies he was his older cousin and if they wanted to beat him up again, they would have to answer to him. “‘They bought it.” Cage said, “They never beat up on me again. It was really my first experience with acting, with changing myself. I learned I could act, that there was power in being able to act’” (13).

Cage got a taste of alternative films growing up from his father, “Some of it was downright terrifying.” Cage told The Guardian, “But it all got into my consciousness and came back in my work as I developed into a man. I mean watching movies like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Nosferatu and Fellini’s Juliet Of the Spirits when I was five years old. He had this little projector and he’d play it in the house and we’d all watch, and I’d have nightmares. Just nightmares. But then I grew to love it. I said, OK, can I do that today” (Brockes 4).

Nicolas Cage has starred in a film just about every year since 1982 which would make him one of the hardest working and prolific actors, ever. It’s hard to imagine what he would be if he never joined Hollywood. Between his strange personal life of buying mansions, collecting dinosaur bones, and outrageous acting methods, it’s difficult to know who Nic Cage actually is. “If it wasn’t for this,” Cage said, “I would probably be in some kind of trouble, But the way things turned out for me, I’ve been given a gift, and I treat it as something sacred” (Schruers 94). While he can upset the cast and crew, at times, people are left with strong impressions of Cage. Mike Figgis, who directed Leaving Las Vegas, says: “Some people can only be performers because their temperament is not suited for anything else. Nic has to be an artist; his brain is in constant turmoil of interpretation. Very rare. He’s uncanny in his choices, I never don’t believe him. And he makes a bad film watchable” (Schruers 94). He even has helped people along the way in his quest to employ his brand of acting. Johnny Depp, who is known universally for the strange characters he has depicted, owes a lot to the Coppola boy. In the Nicolas Cage biography called Hollywood’s Wild Talent by Brian Robb, Depp is quoted as saying: “I always thought it would be cool to act, but it was my friend Nicolas Cage who tried to talk me into giving it a go. I was walking down Melrose Ave looking for a job, when I bumped into Cage and his agent. Three days later I met Wes Craven” (Robb 42). Depp would then be cast in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Honing the Craft

Cage starred in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Valley Girl (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), and Racing with the Moon (1984), but it wasn’t until The Cotton Club (1984) that he started to “awaken” his talents. The film is about a musician named Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) who gets mixed up with the mob to better his career and falls in love with the kingpin’s girlfriend (Diane Lane). Nicolas Cage plays Vincent Dwyer, a young, up and coming mobster. A very enraged Cage was in the role of Vincent Dwyer, and on set, he was a monster:

“On The Cotton Club, I was inflicting pain. I would walk down Christopher Street and say, ‘How much for that remote-control car?’, then I’d lift it up, throw it on the pavement and smash it. Everybody would scatter and think I was crazy. Then I went back to my trailer and ripped it up, threw the mattress out of the window, threw the lamp out of the window. Man, people thought I had lost my mind. The character was racist, so I’d stalk around calling everybody ‘nigger’. By the time I was on film, I truly believed I was a psychotic whack job gangster thug. Needless to say, I was rather disliked” (Robb 37).

Even though Cage was inappropriate and maybe even dangerous, this energy was the key to his success.

The Cotton Club did not do well in the box office but it was still loved by critics for the performances. Cage was aware of the steps he was taking “So my behaviour — all the acting out — came from frustration. I was young and behaving like a guy who listened to early Who music and wanted to be a rebel, a punk rocker. I didn’t really know how to act, so I took a ‘method’ approach” (Robb 37). This “method” approach would lead him to his first breakthrough with Birdy, a Vietnam war film that studies PTSD. While he was all over the place with his preparation in The Cotton Club, Birdy is where Cage began to focus.

Birdy is a 1984 film directed by Alan Parker starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. After serving time in Vietnam, Birdy (Modine) suffers a psychotic break. After witnessing his fellow soldiers die before him, Birdy is stuck acting like a bird in a mental institution. He crouches on the ground and tilts his head back and forth, not responding to anyone. His longtime friend, Al (Cage), tries to bring Birdy back, as a person. Al, too, was in Vietnam and most of his face was blown off by an explosion.

The character of Al had to have facial reconstruction done, so in order for Cage to get into the part, he wore bandages on his face for weeks. He also had his perfectly good wisdom teeth removed without novocain so that he could act pain: “You know, pulling your teeth out is not living the part of a Vietnam Veteran,” Cage says, “but in my nineteen-year-old brain I was trying to do whatever I could. I remember I dismantled the script and put all the monologues on my hotel room wall. I’d get out of bed in the morning with bandages still on my face because I never took them off” (41). But even with all of this preparation, Cage felt that maybe he went a little too far: “I feel like I was giving away too much, there’s no mystery there. Basically, I was still inexperienced and that was a very complex and dramatic role” (41). Birdy is his first, great performance, and the viewer can get a sense that there is potential there, waiting to strike with a little more time.