{"id":149110,"date":"2021-01-07T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nicolas-cage-is-so-good-in-leaving-las-vegas-its-scary\/"},"modified":"2021-01-07T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T12:16:00","slug":"nicolas-cage-is-so-good-in-leaving-las-vegas-its-scary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nicolas-cage-is-so-good-in-leaving-las-vegas-its-scary\/","title":{"rendered":"#Nicolas Cage is So Good in &#8216;Leaving Las Vegas&#8217; It\u2019s Scary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Nicolas Cage is So Good in &#8216;Leaving Las Vegas&#8217; It\u2019s Scary<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.8--><em>Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves. Welcome to\u00a0The Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema\u2019s best roles. In this entry, we examine the Academy Award-winning performance from Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>I can\u2019t remember the last time I drank alcohol. Not because I don\u2019t remember the date I quit \u2014 it was two weeks shy of the <em>Twin Peaks: The Return<\/em> premiere \u2014 but because I literally can\u2019t remember it. In the year before I got sober, blackouts were an everyday thing. Even in that far-gone state, losing stretches of time while making excuses for why my consumption was normal, I still believed I had everything under control. This was the way everybody in their late twenties drank, right? You work hard so you can play harder, which I clearly thought meant chugging liquor in secret. I thought I was living life, but in actuality I was barely living at all.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why when I tried to watch <strong>Nicolas Cage<\/strong>\u2019s performance in <strong><em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em><\/strong> after my first year of sobriety, I just couldn\u2019t. From his character\u2019s physical unsteadiness, stumbling and shaky, to his sudden outbursts of emotion, I was seeing my own experiences on screen, and it was deeply unsettling. Cage\u2019s character, Ben Sanderson, was drinking and behaving just like I had been. His consumption is elevated to an <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/interviews\/cage-relishes-operatic-role-in-tragic-leaving-las-vegas\">operatic level<\/a> by Cage and director <strong>Mike Figgis,<\/strong> where you wouldn\u2019t be faulted for thinking it was a gross exaggeration of alcoholism. But as someone who had just survived the specter of addiction, my stomach was churning because Ben\u2019s behavior felt all too real. For an alcoholic, <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em> is nothing short of a horror movie.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s so frightening because Cage\u2019s performance expertly captures the psychological temperament and physical disintegration of alcohol addiction. Cage may have a reputation for unusual actorly choices and erratic tics, but his methodology is perfectly suited for fully embodying the grotesque presence of a man slowly, purposefully killing himself. His work in <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em> is staggering because it\u2019s an unglamorous depiction of an addict at the end of their rope. But for Cage\u2019s Ben, rather than asking for help, he ties that rope into a noose so he can hang himself.<\/p>\n<p>Cage didn\u2019t achieve this blisteringly real performance by using any of the acting methods I\u2019ve mentioned in previous Great Performances columns. Always the outside-of-the-box thinker, Cage has, over the years, developed his own acting technique, which he calls Nouveau Shamanic. When he was working on <em>Leaving Las Vegas <\/em>in 1995, however, his method was likely still in its infancy. But the way he discusses Nouveau Shamanic today offers some insight into how he brought his terrifying drunk to life. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2019\/08\/07\/magazine\/nicolas-cage-interview.html\">As he told the New York Times<\/a> in 2019:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>\u201cLaurence Olivier said, \u2018What is acting but lying, and what is good lying but convincing lying?\u2019 I don\u2019t want to look at acting that way. Why not experiment?\u2026 Nouveau shamanic is nothing other than trying to augment your imagination to get to the performance without feeling like you\u2019re faking it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It seems so simple, right? If acting is just professional pretending,  Cage plainly chooses to take that one step beyond. The dynamism of his performances comes from this concentrated focus on making his imagination feel real, allowing himself to disappear both emotionally and physically into a character. Experimental acting is the aptest de<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">script<\/a>or for what Cage does on screen. If it seems like he\u2019s in another world from the rest of the ensemble in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">movies<\/a> like <em>Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans<\/em> or <em>Face\/Off<\/em>, you\u2019d be right. That\u2019s because he creates an alternate reality for himself that is vivid and alive, helping him ground any of his off the wall quirks. Everything is real to him, even if he often doesn\u2019t seem real to us. He can be larger than life, sure, but his emotional presence never feels fake.<\/p>\n<p>Since he was presumably still working out the kinks of this acting methodology when he was cast in <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em>, he bolstered his performance through extensive research on addiction encouraged by Figgis. He interviewed alcoholics and sought out their experience with Delirium Tremens, but the greatest source of inspiration came from his family friend: the proud drunk Tony Dingman. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/caged-heat-1323910.html\">As Cage told The Independent<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>\u201cI just watched Tony. He would go on a bender and pass out, curled up in my trailer in a fetal position. And he would go into these amazing diatribes \u2014 and I would put that in the movie. I wanted to give Ben a sort of crumbling elegance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This elegance is best seen through Ben\u2019s drunken confidence as he waxes poetic to Sera (Elisabeth Shue) and others on the Vegas s<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>. He cracks jokes, spouts Latin quotes about drinking, and tries to mold himself into the romanticized depiction of dependency that made writers like Charles Bukowski famous. <\/p>\n<p>What this elegance actually shows us is who Ben was before he succumbed to addiction. Prior to his life falling apart, he was a successful screenwriter. In his lucid moments between the mania, talking to Sera as he walks the Strip, you can tell he had the assertive charisma necessary to be a Hollywood player. It\u2019s what makes Cage\u2019s performance all the more pitiable. We realize how much Ben has lost. It\u2019s a sense of loss we see in Ben\u2019s face when his boss fires him towards the beginning of the film. \u201cWe really liked having you around,\u201d Mr. Simpson says as Cage\u2019s eyes fill with terror and regret. He sobs, \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d In two words Cage masterfully personifies the shame every alcoholic keenly understands.<\/p>\n<p>The most painfully realistic moment of Cage\u2019s performance is also one of the quietest in <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em>. Throughout the opening montage of scenes, we\u2019re given an idea of the scope of Ben\u2019s addiction. After one particularly rough bender where he downed a pint of hard liquor in one agonizing swallow, he goes to a bank to try and cash a check. As the bank teller asks him to sign his name, he clasps his hands around his arms and shakes uncontrollably. Cage\u2019s tormented physicality in this moment is one that any addict will recognize: he\u2019s already going through withdrawals. He begs her to just cash the check without his signature because his hands are trembling so badly he can barely hold a pen. He tries to excuse his tremors by lying about a recent brain surgery, but he gives up and downs an early morning gin and tonic to steady his hand. <\/p>\n<p>When he returns to the bank, we watch him dictate into a tape recorder everything he wishes he could say to the bank teller. It\u2019s an out-of-time moment, where the audience is unsure if he\u2019s actually speaking to her or if this is simply a drunk conversation he is having with himself. When he finally does show off to the teller how capable he is at signing his name, we once again get to see the person Ben was before alcoholism consumed his life. He has a silver tongue that\u2019s been silenced by addiction; his words now nothing more than the pathetic rantings of a man on the cusp of throwing his life away.<\/p>\n<p>This bank scene is the moment that made me originally turn the film off, because it was too much of a painful reminder of what I had just been through. I had been just like Ben, ashamed of the violent tremors that coursed through my hands. And much like him I also convinced myself the only cure for that pain was at the bottom of another glass. When I watched this scene, I knew that Cage\u2019s performance was more than just pretending to be drunk; this was an actor who understood the nuances of addiction, and how to make that torture appear and feel alarmingly real.<\/p>\n<p>How anyone can watch <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em> and still want to drink afterward is beyond me. The film is perhaps the best cinematic argument for why, as a society, we should remain hyper-vigilant to how we romanticize alcohol. Not every \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/family\/archive\/2020\/05\/wine-moms-explained\/612001\/#:~:text=A%20wine%20mom%2C%20alone%2C%20is,even%20comfortable%20middle%2Dclass%20complacency.\">wine mom<\/a>\u201d binge drinks like Cage\u2019s character does, but every time we normalize any level of alcohol dependency, we enable one more person to indulge in an unhealthy relationship to booze. If anything, <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em> is a public service announcement, warning about how slippery of a slope \u201cjust one more\u201d can be. It\u2019s the most truthful and honest depiction of the harrowing descent of alcoholism ever committed to screen, and it\u2019s because of Cage\u2019s raw, fiercely committed performance.<\/p>\n<p>In his Academy Award acceptance speech, Cage said, \u201cI know it\u2019s not hip to say it, but I just love acting, and I hope that there\u2019ll be more encouragement for alternative movies where we can experiment and fast forward into the future of acting.\u201d That love he has for this art form is apparent in his dynamic approach to embodying a character as flawed and complicated as Ben Sanderson. Not every actor is pouring themselves into their roles like Cage is, but his knack for daring experimentation is what has made him the iconic performer we know today. We may have fonder memories of his wackier roles in movies like <em>Vampire\u2019s Kiss<\/em> and <em>Mandy<\/em>, but if you want incontrovertible proof of his immense talent, look no further than <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em>.\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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Welcome to\u00a0The Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema\u2019s best roles. In this entry, we examine the Academy Award-winning performance from Nicolas Cage in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Nicolas-Cage-in-Leaving-Las-Vegas.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[88744,36984,15257],"class_list":["post-149110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-leaving-las-vegas","tag-nicolas-cage","tag-the-great-performances"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}