We have seen Nic Cage transform into any type of character you could ever dream of (literally) but there hasn’t been enough nightmare-adjacent Cage. Yes, we’ve seen him in slashers and the likes, but everyone knows what Nic Cage looks like, so in order to be really scary, he has to not look like Nic Cage, and that’s how they pulled off his “demented character” in Longlegs.
In Longlegs, Cage plays the titular serial killer who is being hunted by Lee, portrayed by Maika Monroe.
Monroe recently revealed to IndieWire, that she hadn’t seen Cage’s chilling transformation until his last day of filming.
“Oz wanted to keep us completely separate. No one showed me any photos of him. Oz wanted it to be a complete surprise for that scene when we interact for the first time. Just imagine that,” Monroe revealed. “It was completely shocking and overwhelming. The first time I met him, the cameras were rolling, and they called action. I opened the door, and there he was.”
Not only did they get her initial reaction, but director Osgood Perkins also tracked Monroe’s heart rate the first time she saw Cage in character. “It was insane. It was absolutely insane!” she said. “As you know, he completely transformed. There’s no trace of Nic in there, his voice, his mannerisms. He was very much Method on this. So it was in character, and it’s a very disturbing character, to say the least.”
The first time Maika Monroe saw Nicolas Cage as Longlegs, her heart rate hit 170 bpm.
LONGLEGS opens in theaters Friday: https://t.co/3tgjmFAPLc pic.twitter.com/DaweYaDgxM
— ↃL⊥\Ↄ—\ᘰ (@LonglegsFilm) July 8, 2024
Even though their first encounter was…tense…Monroe said they were able to chat after. “It was actually very cute,” she revealed. “We filmed that scene and it was his last day, and so we finished filming, and then we just had to [shoot] some stills at the end. So the photographer comes in, and we’re sitting across from each other, and he’s just like, ‘Ah, well, by the way, I’m a really big fan of yours,’ completely back to Nic’s voice. ‘I’m like, what is happening? Am I in a dream right now? What is happening?’ … It was a very surreal day for me.” When Nic Cage shows up in your dreams, you know you’re in for a wild ride.
Longlegs hits theaters on July 12th.
