LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Nicolas Cage When he first read the script for “Longlegs” and considered playing the eponymous serial killer, he knew exactly where he would draw his inspiration: his mother.
“She wasn’t demonic,” Cage explained in a recent interview, but he said he needed to address her lifelong struggle with mental illness. “In my approach to trying to get more personal with my film performances, I was trying to find a constructive place to put my memories of my mother.”
Cage said the connection to his mother was so strong—particularly how he perceived the character’s body language and way of speaking—that he recalled hearing her voice early one Christmas morning while rehearsing his lines. “Everyone was getting ready to open presents and stuff, and I’m playing this very dark character and trying to instill love in her,” he recalled.
Making “Longlegs,” which hits theaters Friday, was ultimately a cathartic experience for the Oscar winner. “Oh my God, I was inspired by my father’s real life character. For Dracula “I did my mom in Longlegs. What does that say about my childhood?” he said with a laugh.
when they first met Osgood Perkins Speaking about the film, Cage was shocked to learn that the director had his mother in mind when writing the script.
The film follows FBI agent Lee Harker ( Maika Monroe ) who not long after being assigned to investigate a series of horrific murders, realizes her connection to the killer (Cage). Although Perkins has admitted that she was inspired by “The Silence of the Lambs” and other similar films, “Long Legs” differs from many serial killer films in that the horrors, although committed by people, are terrifyingly supernatural.
Perkins exploits this supernatural license, filling the world of “Longlegs” with biblical references and cryptic clues for the protagonist to unravel. But unlike some directors who prefer to obscure their process or leave it open to the audience to see how much meaning they have to truly understand, Perkins is honest about his source material—or lack thereof.
“I created this,” the director says plainly of some of the symbolism used and messages sent throughout the film, comparing the process of making a movie like “Longlegs” to creating a crossword puzzle. “The joy of putting things together and finding little pieces of things that you love, that’s what filmmaking is all about. It’s just putting things together.”
As the son of Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock The director of Psycho and Two Long Legs has long wrestled with his relationship with Hollywood and horror in particular.
“It was kind of forced on me,” he said, though he admitted he appreciated the freedom the genre allowed. “You’re allowed to do anything and do it in a gothic or baroque way that’s full of flavour. It’s like making a big, beautiful sauce.”
Cage has also appeared in horror films, from “Mandy” to the 2006 remake of “The Wicker Man,” but he said this film is probably his scariest. As someone who is known for his versatility as an actor, he also said he enjoys letting the genre go outside the box.
“I’ve always maintained that horror, when done well, is truly surreal. It’s the logic of dreams. It doesn’t have to be based on physics or reality. It can allow actors to express themselves in ways other than what was considered the judgement of great acting, which was the naturalism of the ’70s,” he said. “That’s fine, but we’ve done it over and over, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.”
Although they did not know each other prior to filming this movie, Cage and Perkins quickly bonded over their love of cinema and deep family roots. Wanting to create as natural an initial interaction as possible, Perkins did not allow Cage and Monroe to meet before their first scene together—one of the film’s most terrifying and violent.
But the actors already had a mutual respect for each other, and Cage, still covered in makeup, made sure to tell Monroe he was a fan of her work in David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows” as soon as the cameras stopped rolling.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I wish this was on camera.’ It was so funny. It was the first time I heard his real voice,” she said of their first meeting. “I grew up watching his movies, and then in recent years, I think his choices are so amazing. I have so much respect for him.”
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