By One of the big selling points of the newly released horror-thriller “Longlegs” is an unhinged performance from Nicolas Cage playing the eponymous character who has mostly been kept under wraps in the film’s marketing.
What little we can glimpse of him in stills sees the actor in a straggly grey wig, ashen white skin and using prosthetics to give him a strange look, complete with various physical ticks and mannerisms.
Speaking with EW, Cage says a vivid memory from when he was a toddler of seeing his late mother (Joy Vogelsang) in face cream spooked him and became an inspiration for the role:
“My mom put on Noxzema cold cream. I was 2 years old, and I opened the bathroom door [to see] what she was doing. For no reason, she turned her face really fast and stared at me after [putting on] the cold cream. The whiteness of the cold cream just really spooked me.”
The actor used that childhood memory to help with his transformation into an elusive Satanic serial killer who: “has a strange connection to the color white. I don’t really know what it is. He says it’s just a force he’s aware of. You don’t question it too much. He knows it when he sees it.”
Cage’s mother also lived with schizophrenia and severe depression throughout her life, with the actor using that as focal point for his performance and he sees Longlegs as an ultimately tragic character at the mercy of the voices inside of him.
Cage adds he sees the character as very androgynous, neither male nor female, and was also partly inspired by a character from Fellini ‘s “Juliet and the Spirits”.
“Longlegs” is in cinemas now and is currently projected to pull in around $20-23 million in its opening weekend – a record for distributor NEON and more than double its under $10 million budget.
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