Nicolas Cage, star of new Prime Video series Spider-Noir, looked back on some of his memorable roles that turned into memes in a new Complex News interview.
The legendary actor spoke with Complex’s Mami Tiff, who showed Cage classic memes from some of his films, including Vampire’s Kiss, Wicker Man and Con Air.
“Does any other actor deal with this at this level?” Cage joked.
In discussing the often-memed Vampire’s Kiss scene featuring Cage’s unhinged character Peter Loew (who comes to believe over the course of the delightful film that he’s turning into a vampire), the actor said he believes that more people know the “You don’t say?” meme made from the moment than the scene itself.
For The Wicker Man, Cage shared a “weird story” about the scene where his character of Edward Malus wore a wire cage on his head filled with bees.
“I never understood why my grandfather, when I was about eight years old, wanted to make a fly trap. He made this weird wire fly trap and put honey in it to catch flies and it was just so bizarre,” Cage explained.
The memory prompted the idea for the trap to be added to The Wicker Man.
Another meme came from 1997 film Face/Off, where Cage played Castor Troy opposite John Travolta as Sean Archer. The actor explained that Troy was a “bad guy” who wasn’t “doing appropriate things” in the meme. In Con Air, however, Cage’s character of Cameron Poe was intended to take in “joy and bliss” upon being released from maximum security.
“I just said, I’ve got to take this moment and just give me a second,” Cage recalled. “Let me take that sun and that bliss in because that’s what’s most important to that character.”
Cage concluded the segment by sharing his acceptance of memes, which he thinks communicate “on a deeper level than just awards or ‘Here’s your Oscar.’”
See the full interview above and watch Spider-Noir in full when it releases to Prime Video on Wednesday, May 27.
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