Impact: Is it fair to say that even when you're not playing flame-haired anti-heroes, you've enjoyed playing some extreme characters - ones that are edgy, off-kilter and sometimes even a little crazy.
Nic Cage: I am attracted to playing characters that have some obstacle to overcome. To me, that's drama, that's the human experience. But within that, I'm attracted to characters that allow me to realise my more surrealistic and abstract dreams for film acting. I think acting need be no different than painting or music. You can get 'outside the box' or 'over the top'. In order to do that, if you're not the director, you have to find characters that provide an engine to have that behaviour make sense within the context of the movie. I'm attracted to characters like Terrence in Bad Lieutenant - high on cocaine or, in Ghost Rider where my face morphs into skull and there's pain in that I can show. I look for characters that allow me to realise my more surreal and abstract dreams in cinema... I believe in art synthesis, I believe acting needs to be no different than painting or music. If you can get very outside the box - or as critics like to call it, 'over the top' - in a Francis Bacon painting, why can't you do it in a movie.
Impact: I've visted East European sets in the past and they have a different vibe than UK or US-based shoots. How was shooting in Romania?
NC: There were a lot of stray dogs everywhere. I didn't know where they came from or where they were going to go, but I heard them at night. Then it was impossible not to think of Bram Stoker and the children of the night. So Romania was a kind of spooky, cool place to make a movie. The fact we had allegedly the castle of Vlad Tepes (the historical figure Dracula is based upon) just added to the charm. To ride my motorcycle out there and be surrounded by all the scary and beautiful energies, just stimulated me for this kind of a movie...
Impact: There are some very impressive stunts with the Ghost Rider motorcycle in the film and you did some of your own stunts. How was THAT experience?
NC: The truth is that I was blessed to work with a Yamaha V-Max. Now, I'm not a spokesman for Yamaha or a sponsor or have a contract with them... but I HAVE had my experiences on several different motorcycles and they are the best. If you think something that you want the bike to do, it'll happen. I could go impossibly fast on that motorcycle and tell it to stop safely and it will. I totally trusted it. I never got hurt. My insurance, today, tells me I'm not allowed to ride motorcycles in my own life - I'm legally unable to, it's part of the contract I have with my life insurance - so I have to do it when I'm working. So whenever I get the chance to do a movie and ride a bike, I go for it. But I want to give a lot of credit to (stuntman) Rick English. The man is a mystic on a motorcycle. I don't know how he does what he does. He can spin it with a child on it and no-one gets hurt. he's a poet on two wheels..."
Impact: The film's co-directors, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, got a reputation for being 'extreme' when they made the Crank films. How collaborative were you with them on Spirit of Vengeance?
NC: They are daredevils. They are literally risking their lives to entertain you. You have Neveldine with a camera in one hand and a motorcycle in the other and on roller-blades being pulled at, like, sixty miles an hour to get a shot. At any moment he can break his neck or go flying off a cliff. They are the only guys who are doing it. There are a lot of poetic young film-makers, but only Mark and Brian are the ones who poetic AND risking their lives. It's daredevil-extreme sports-film-making! You have to give them credit for that...
As for casting, Mark and Brian did all of that. They have a great appreciation for all things cinema and they really know their movies. They are the ones that did all the casting... from Christophe Lambert to Ciarán Hinds... how brilliant to cast those two. To think of Ciaran as the devil is inspired...
Impact: There was a rumour you were one of the original casting choices for Crank...
NC: I never heard about it, but I can't imagine it without Statham, it's his part. He should be the only one to do that...
Impact: This film is in 3D, but how do you feel about the growing trend of 3D movies in general?
NC: I see 3D as a tool to be used when it suits the character or the storyline. It's not something that you should use all the time, it's just another paint-brush to work with. Ghost Rider, matches well with 3D. The chains, the fire and the motorcycle can go out into the audience...
Impact: You're a well known comic-book fan and there was a time when you were linked with a Superman revival. Any regrets that didn't happen?
NC: No. The only regret I have is not being able to work with Tim Burton. I hope some day we will work together. I know it would be special. But as far as that particular character goes, I have no regrets. I think Ghost Rider is a far better match for me...
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (3D) is released by Entertainment One on 17th February.
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