Nicolas Cage on playing himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Late last year, it was announced that Nicolas Cage will be starring in THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT, and the role will likely be the most difficult he's ever tackled – himself. The upcoming meta-comedy will find Nicolas Cage playing himself, or rather a stylised version of himself, as well as an egotistical 1990s version who is on his case for not being a major star anymore. Production on the film, which will be written and directed by Tom Gormican, is slated to begin soon, and Nicolas Cage recently spoke with Empire about the project.

It’s a stylised version of me, and the fact I even have to refer to myself in the third person makes me extremely uncomfortable. There are many scenes in the movie where modern or contemporary – here we go – ‘Nic Cage’ and then young ‘Nic Cage’ are colliding and arguing and battling it out. It’s an acrobatic approach to acting.

Nicolas Cage added that the 90s version of the character will be channeling the energy of a very specific Nicolas Cage, namely the one who made an extremely memorable appearance on Terry Wogan's chat show. "Remember that talk show I went on, Wogan, when I was promoting Wild At Heart?" Cage said. "Young Nic Cage [in the film] will be that guy. But this is a very stylised version of me. It’s definitely just me ‘taking the piss’, as they say, out of myself." As an added bonus, Cage said that THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT may just contain a few re-enactments of some of his past work. "I’m probably going to have to look at a couple of the movies from the past again, because I think we’re gonna have to reenact some of those sequences. It’s like walking through a Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari version of Con Air and Face/Off," Cage said.

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT will find the Nicolas Cage desperate to land a role in the new Quentin Tarantino film while also dealing with a strained relationship with his teenage daughter. Faced with crippling debt, Cage is forced to appear at the birthday party of a Mexican billionaire who just so happens to be a fan and wants to show him the script he's been working on. After bonding with the man, the CIA enters the picture and informs Cage that the billionaire is actually a drug cartel kingpin who has kidnapped the daughter of a Mexican presidential nominee. Tasked with gathering intelligence, Cage's job gets all the more dangerous when the billionaire brings over Cage's daughter and ex-wife for a reconciliation.