Nic Cage Rewatched His Iconic Film Face/Off To Get Ready To Play Himself In New Movie

Hollywood icon Nicolas Cage has opened up about how he prepared for his new movie,The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, where he plays as himself.

He took a trip down memory lane and revisited some career highlights.

Cage revealed he was particularly stoked about how 1997 fan-favourite Face/Off has stood the test of time.

Lionsgate

"I looked at Face/Off again, which I was really wowed by. I think that movie's aged beautifully," Cage told Insider.

The Face/Off baddie said he was 'very wowed' and 'fired up' by the work done on the film by director John Woo and - of course - John Travolta, who played the good cop opposing Cage's character.

In the 1997 thriller, Travolta played an FBI agent going after his son's killer. So he went under extensive plastic surgery to play his enemy (Cage's character Castor Troy) and found himself living in a twisted version of Troy's life.

In a case of life imitating art, Cage's utterly bonkers new movie does sort of the same thing... and it is getting rave reviews.

It's even received a whopping 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

So, the crux of this latest movie (spoiler free, of course) is we have Cage, an actor who used to be good, but now his career is sort-of going down the drain.

So, he begrudgingly accepts an offer to attend the birthday party of a 'superfan' (played by Pedro Pascal), and it all starts to unravel.

The synopsis of the film says: "Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones.

"With a career built for this very moment, the seminal award-winning actor must take on the role of a lifetime: Nick Cage."

Lionsgate

So, essentially the storyline requires the actor to have two roles – one as a down-and-out struggling actor trying to return to his glory days, and another as his younger self from when he was a huge star.

Yeah, it's a bit of a noodle-scratcher of a concept when you take him rewatching Face/Off into consideration - but Cage doesn't care because he's never going to watchThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

He told Collider he's refused to watch a movie where he plays himself as it'd be 'too much of a whacked-out trip', and after thinking about it a bit harder - yeah, that would probably leave you pretty messed up.

And yet, here we are.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is due to hit cinemas on 22 April 2022.