Nicolas Cage on Creating ‘Longlegs’ Serial Killer, Inspiration From Mother

Within the upcoming horror film Longlegs, Nicolas Cage stars as a mysterious, Satanic serial killer who is thought by that very same title. And although the movie has drawn comparisons to Silence of the Lambs and Zodiac, Cage factors to his late mom as one among his inspirations for the film.

Cage’s mom Pleasure Vogelsang handed away in 2021, and the actor has beforehand spoken about how she struggled with psychological sickness for many of his childhood, at factors institutionalized and present process shock remedies.

On the movie’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday, Cage defined how for his character, “it’s the voices, it’s not likely him; he’s been hijacked by one thing else. I’ve usually thought what was it that occurred to my mother — if I’m any good on this film, it’s due to my mom. That additionally gave me a little bit of empathy for the character, as loopy as what his scenario is and what he’s getting as much as with these effigies.”

In Longlegs, Maika Monroe stars as a brand new FBI agent assigned to the unsolved serial killer case, discovering a private connection to the assassin as she tries to cease him earlier than extra individuals are killed. Within the trailer and advertising for the film, Cage’s look is generally saved hidden, apart from the high-pitched voice belonging to his character.

Cage instructed The Hollywood Reporter that he crafted each his character’s unrecognizable look and voice alongside writer-director Osgood Perkins, with the star saying he was “calling him at 4:30 within the morning on Christmas Day two years in the past giving him soundbites of me rehearsing the dialogue.”

For the bodily transformation — turning Cage very pale with lengthy blonde hair — it was about “discovering this very androgynous, he-she look, glam rock look to the character that was essential to me in order that he didn’t look something like me and that I discovered liberating, that I might communicate on this method and transfer on this method and speak about these very darkish issues,” the actor defined. “I wished the character to be an androgynous virtually prophet, within the Fellini film Juliet of the Spirits.”

Perkins added that for the voice, “we talked about what was the alternative of being aggressive? Was there form of a female facet that will be attention-grabbing?” Perkins mentioned Cage would go off and “form of does his homework and brings it to me on the entrance of the classroom and I form of verify it and if one thing seems good I say yeah, if one thing is a bit of too far I convey it again. I’m simply curating it, I’m not telling him what to do.”

Longlegs hits theaters on Friday.

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