Interview with Knowing’s Nicholas Cage
Nicholas Cage stars in 'Knowing'
Sci Fi Wire have posted a two part interview with Nicholas Cage, the star of Alex Proyas’s upcoming sci-fi disaster flick, Knowing. The interview is excellent and further establishes in my mind that Knowing is going to be one of the better sci-fi films of the year.
Here’s my two favorite questions from the interview in which Cage’s answers demonstrate to me that he’s also an intelligent man:
What about science fiction as a genre appeals to you?
Cage: Well, good science fiction is intelligent. It asks big questions that are on people’s minds. It’s not impossible. It has some sort of root in the abstract. So automatically you’re getting closer to potentially divine sources of interest, because it is abstract. It’s one of the only ways that a film actor can express himself in the abstract and have audiences still go along for the ride. They don’t contend it. They accept it, that they’re going to go places that are a bit more of the imagination, a bit more out there, and that’s more and more where I like to dance.
The other thing is that I got a little tired of movies where I had to shoot people, and I got to thinking about the power of film and what that power is. The power is, in fact, that it really can change people’s minds. I had that experience with The China Syndrome. It made me aware. So I thought if it was this powerful, the power to change people’s minds, then perhaps I should just be a little more responsible with that power. That’s not to say that I don’t believe in freedom of speech. I do. It’s just that at this point in my life, in my interests, I would rather entertain you with the spectacle and with the imagination as opposed to servicing your bloodlust appetites. But that’s not to say that I might not find myself in that situation again. There are ways of doing it, even by showing it where it can be ironic, and there can be awareness in that as well. Just not gratuitous in the sense that I want you to get off by watching someone’s head explode.
This film talks about randomness versus fate, science versus fate. Do you think there’s room for both those phenomena on the same side of the coin or are they always going to be diametrically opposed?
Cage: Without impinging on your own personal choice, there are going to be those that wear the hat of religion and those that wear the hat of science, and I still don’t really understand why they can’t wear both hats because personally I think that they go beautifully together.
Read part one of the interview here
Read part two of the interview here
