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Leaving Las Vegas
Background:
"To be a good actor, you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to
break the rules to strive for something new." Nicolas Cage
Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage received rave reviews while portraying
alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter Ben Sanderson in Mike Figgis' romantic drama
Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and for portraying nervous screenwriter Charlie Kaufman
and his twin brother Donald Kaufman, in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002). He
first caught attention while playing punk rocker Randy in Valley Girl (1983) and
later with his roles in Raising Arizona (1987) and Moonstruck (1987). Cage
continued to gain recognition for starring in such films as The Rock (1996), Con
Air (1997), Face/Off (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Gone in Sixty Seconds
(2000), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), Windtalkers (2002), National Treasure
(2004) and The Weather Man (2005). He will star in a string of upcoming films,
including Ghost Rider, The Wicker Man, an Untitled Oliver Stone/September 11
Project, Ant Bully (voice), Amarillo Slim, Next, Time Share, National Treasure
2, and Electric God.
Nicolas Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola. He was one of John
Willis' Screen World’s "Promising New Actors of 1984" and Premiere's “100 Most
Powerful People in Hollywood” (1998). On July 31, 1998, Cage received a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
On a more personal note, the 6' 1" tall, sleepy-eyed actor has been linked to
several screen beauties including Kristina Fulton (also a model; born 1957;
relationship ended in 1991; Cage has one son with her), Sarah Jessica Parker
(had one-year relationship) and Kristen Zang (1992-1994; engaged; engagement and
relationship ended 1994). The ex-husband of actress Patricia Arquette and Lisa
Marie Presley, Cage is currently the husband of Alice Kim (a former waitress)
and has one son with her.
Nicholas Coppola
Childhood and Family:
"I needed to change my name just to liberate myself and find out I could do it
without walking into a Hollywood casting office with the name Coppola." Nicolas
Cage
Born Nicholas Kim Coppola, on January 7, 1964, Long Beach, California, Nicholas
later changed his name to Nicolas Cage, after the Marvel comic book hero Luke
Cage, Power Man, in order not to benefit from his family name during film
casting. The son of August Coppola (formerly a literature professor at Cal State
Long Beach and Dean of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University; also
writer) and Joy Vogelsang (a German American dancer/choreographer), Nicolas Cage
is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola (born on April 7, 1939) and
actress Talia Shire (born on April 25, 1945). His cousins are Sofia Coppola
(director, Lost in Translation) and Jason Schwartzman, (actor, Rushmore). He is
also the grandson of composer/musical arranger Carmine Flautist Coppola (born on
June 11, 1910; died on April 26, 1991) and actress Italia Coppola. Nicolas Cage
has two older brothers: director/screenwriter/producer/composer Christopher
Coppola (born on January 25, 1962) and actor/disc jockey Marc Coppola (born in
1958).
Following his parents’ divorce in 1976, Cage moved to Beverly Hills with his
father. He attended Beverly Hills High School, but dropped out at age 17. He
then studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco,
California. Cage later graduated from UCLA School of Theater, Film, and
Television and received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from California State
University in May 2001.
On April 8, 1995, Cage married actress Patricia Arquette (born on April 8,
1968), but they separated in November 2000 and divorced on May 18, 2001. In
April 2001, Cage began dating the only child of Elvis, Lisa Marie Presley (born
on February 1, 1968). The couple exchanged wedding vows on August 10, 2002, in
Hawaii, but the marriage ended in divorce on May 24, 2004. That same year, Cage
married a former sushi waitress, Alice Kim, on July 30, 2004. Cage and Kim
welcomed son Kal-el Coppola Cage on October 3, 2005. Cage also has another son
from his relationship with model and actress Kristina Fulton, Weston Coppola
Cage (born in December 1990).
Adaptation
Career:
“I welcomed the idea of bad reviews because that would mean I was doing
something that challenged the critics. I thought I could change acting, which
isn’t really my goal anymore. But at that time I was headstrong.” Nicolas Cage
After watching James Dean's performance in East of Eden, Nicolas Cage became
interested in becoming an actor. 15-year-old Cage then joined the Young
Conservatory (part of the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco),
stayed there for one summer and appeared in a production of "Golden Boy." He
subsequently landed on television in the ABC variety special The Best of Times,
in 1981. In the following year, he debuted on the silver screen with a tiny part
in Amy Heckerling's drama comedy, adopted from Cameron Crowe's book, Fast Times
at Ridgemont High (starring Sean Penn, billed as Nicolas Coppola).
Randy, a punk from the wrong side of Hollywood Hills, was Cage's first leading
role. He played it in Martha Coolidge's romantic comedy Valley Girl (1983),
opposite Deborah Foreman. He then joined uncle Francis Ford Coppola in his film
version of S.E. Hinton's novel, Rumble Fish (1983, starring Matt Dillon),
playing Smokey, the film's resident nerd, and in his uncle’s 1984 project, The
Cotton Club, along with stars Richard Gere, Gregory Hines and Diane Lane.
Director Alan Parker then cast Cage to act opposite Matthew Modine, playing two
friends arriving back from Vietnam, in the war drama Birdy (1984), and his uncle
recruited him again to costar with Kathleen Turner, playing her boyfriend and
husband, in a charming twist on the Rip van Winkle fairy tale, Peggy Sue Got
Married (1986). He also took a comic turn as an ex-con who marries an ex-cop
(played by Holly Hunter), in the Coen brothers’ colorful and unconventional
slapstick comedy Raising Arizona.
Norman Jewison's romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987) was Cage's first box-office
hit. In the film, written by John Patrick Shanley, Cage portrayed Ronny
Cammareri and starred opposite actor/singer Cher. He followed it up with the
leading role of a publishing executive who imagines that he's turning into a
vampire, in Robert Bierman's vampire comedy Vampire's Kiss (1989, one of the
scenes shows Cage eating a live cockroach) and as Laura Dern's companion in
David Lynch's adaptation of Barry Gifford's novel, Wild at Heart (1990). After
mistaken by J.T. Walsh to be a professional hitman he hired to kill his
unfaithful wife (Lara Flynn Boyle), in John Dahl's rock-solid little noir
thriller Red Rock West (film debuted on HBO before receiving a theatrical
release), Cage collaborated with writer/director Andrew Bergman in the romantic
comedy Honeymoon in Vegas (both in 1992), alongside James Caan and Sarah Jessica
Parker. He also hosted NBC’s "Saturday Night Live" show in September that year.
Cage joined brother Christopher Coppola in his crime drama film Deadfall (1993),
alongside Michael Biehn and James Coburn. He shared the starring roles with
Samuel L Jackson in writer-director E. Max Frye's crime comedy Amos & Andrew
(1993) and became a Secret Service agent protecting a former First Lady (Shirley
MacLaine) in Hugh Wilson's drama/comedy Guarding Tess (1994). He also promised
to share his lottery ticket with Bridget Fonda in Andrew Bergman's drama comedy
It Could Happen to You (1994) and delivered a mad-dog, bad guy satire in Barbet
Schroeder's remake of Ben Hecht's 1947 screenplay, the crime drama Kiss of Death
(1995, with David Caruso and Samuel L. Jackson).
A real breakthrough arrived in 1995 after director Mike Figgis hired Cage to
star in his film Leaving Las Vegas. In the romantic drama film, based on John
O'Brien's novel, Cage played Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter
whom lost everything because of his drinking. His divergent performance received
rave reviews and won him a Best Actor at the Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen
Actors Guild awards.
"The next morning [after winning the Oscar], I'm downtown, walking by the
newsstand and it was the first time I'd ever been on the front page of the
newspaper, which was...interesting. Then I went to this old coffee shop to have
a cup of coffee and some pancakes, and the cooks and chefs come out and clap,
and it was a great feeling. Then I got in my car and put my Beatles song on that
I play when I'm feeling proud, which is 'Baby You're a Rich Man.' So I'm
listening to that in my Lamborghini and I'm driving to the beach, feeling pretty
good, when a cop pulls me over. And I think I'm going to get a ticket, which is
what usually happens in that car, but they say, 'We just want to say
congratulations.' And it was cool. And I'm walking on the beach, and surfers
from, like, hundreds of yards in are going, 'Hey, Nic, congratulations!' And it
was just a wild day. For one second, Los Angeles felt like a small town."
Nicolas Cage
With the Oscar in his hand, more significant roles rolled in. Cage portrayed a
brainy, geeky biochemist-turned-action hero in Michael Bay's The Rock (with Sean
Connery and Ed Harris), a newly released ex-con and ex-US Ranger trapped in a
prisoner transport plane in Simon West's Con Air (with John Cusack and John
Malkovich), and swapped identities with terrorist John Travolta in John Woo's
Face/Off. Cage appeared as an angel, who falls in love with Meg Ryan’s
character, in Brad Silberling's City of Angels and played local corrupt cop Rick
Santoro in Brian De Palma's thriller Snake Eyes (alongside Gary Sinise, both in
1998). Cage ended the decade with the lead role of Frank Pierce, a paramedic
working at Gotham's Hell's Kitchen, in Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Joe
Connelly's novel, Bringing Out the Dead (1999).
After stealing 50 cars with his crew in one night to save his brother's
(Giovanni Ribisi) life, in Dominic Sena's remake of H.B. Halicki's 1974 motion
picture, Gone in Sixty Seconds (also with Angelina Jolie), Cage wakes up on
Christmas morning with a wife and two children in Brett Ratner's fantasy film
The Family Man (both in 2000). He played the title character in John Madden's
adaptation of Louis de Berničres' book Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001,
opposite Penélope Cruz) and was assigned to protect Navajo Marines during WWII
in John Woo's Windtalkers (2002, with Christian Slater). He also debuted in
directing with the crime drama Sonny (starring James Franco, Cage also played
the character Acid Yellow).
Director Spike Jonze asked Cage to portray lovelorn screenwriter Charlie Kaufman
and his twin brother, the less talented Donald Kaufman, in the off beat drama
Adaptation, based on Susan Orlean's book "The Orchid Thief" and Charlie
Kaufman's screenplay. Cage’s strong performance earned nominations at the
Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild. Ridley Scott then
teamed him with Sam Rockwell to play two professional, small-time con artists in
his drama comedy film, inspired by Eric Garcia's book, Matchstick Men (2003) and
Jon Turteltaub later offered him the role of treasure hunter Ben Gates, who sets
out to protect an ancient treasure, in the action adventure film National
Treasure (2004, also starring Diane Kruger). More recent, Cage appeared as The
Weather Man (2005, opposite Michael Caine and Hope Davis), in Gore Verbinski's
drama comedy film with the same name.
The upcoming years will see Cage playing stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze, who
gives up his soul to become a hell-blazing vigilante, in Mark Steven Johnson's
film based on the Marvel character, Ghost Rider, and as the sheriff in Neil
LaBute's The Wicker Man (with Ellen Burstyn). In Oliver Stone's untitled
September 11 Project, Cage will costar with Maria Bello, and in John A. Davis'
adaptation of John Nickle's book, Ant Bully, he will lend his voice to Zoc. Cage
will also play lead roles in Milos Forman's Amarillo Slim and Lee Tamahori's
adaptation of Philip K. Dick's short story, "The Golden Man." Cage will then be
seen in Mark Steilen's Time Share and Mark Pellington's film version of
Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel, Electric God. He will also reprise his role of Ben
Gates in the sequel to National Treasure, titled National Treasure 2.
"Hollywood didn't know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy
character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual,
different and wild." Nicolas Cage
Awards:
