Say what you want about it. Nicolas Cagehe always goes all out, no matter what movie he’s in. The recently released movie Long legs kept him out of the direct marketing of the film, but snippets of footage and hype ahead of the release of his film, which would have been weird look have garnered a lot of attention. And in playing the titular serial killer targeting families, Cage used elements of his own family history to inform his performance.
Talk to Weekly EntertainmentCage recalls a moment from his childhood when he saw his mother Joy Vogelsang applying Noxzema cold cream. At the time, he remembers seeing her “turn her face really fast and stare at me after she put the cold cream on. Her whiteness really scared me.” In the film, Longlegs has a horrifying white complexion similar to Cage’s mother, but without a clear pattern. The actor doesn’t have a specific reason why his character is so white, but has noted the killer’s “weird connection” to the color. “He says it’s just a force that he’s aware of, and you don’t really question it,” Cage notes. “He knows it when he sees it.”
In terms of performance, Cage had previously called the role “deeply personal” due to his mother’s lifelong schizophrenia. Junehe explained to EW about the way she spoke in poetic terms, something he also brought to Longlegs. For Cage, the character is a tragic figure because he is “at the mercy of these voices that are speaking to him.” Before filming in early 2023, he recorded his performance on his phone to capture the character’s “rhythms and melodies.” (…) By the time I got on set, it was so set that it was almost like performing a song or a piece of music.
Cage’s interview also contains Long legs spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, don’t go past the banner below.
In the film’s climax, Harker, played by Maika Monroe, finally comes face to face with Longlegs, who has been giving dolls possessed by satanic energy to the families of girls born on specific dates. It’s eventually revealed that he targeted her when she was a child, but that she was spared thanks to her mother’s intervention. The encounter where they “reunite” and Longlegs committing suicide before his eyes are the reason Cage joined the film in the first place. The two actors hadn’t socialized before this—a move he believes was intentional on the part of director Osgood Perkins—and he was really looking forward to the “explosive” encounter between their characters.
It turns out the scene has an added meta layer. Cage has said he’s a fan of Monroe and her horror skills in films like It follows And Observer. As with some audiences, It follows It was his first time seeing her, and he called the film “one of my favorites of its kind.” He also cheekily drew parallels between his adoration of his partner and Longlegs’ long-standing obsession with Harker, calling her “a kind of heroine” that his character finally had the pleasure of meeting.
Before that, the film goes out of its way to not film Longlegs directly. Instead, he is seen from various angles or reflections. Perkins explained that this shows how the killer left such an impression on Harker as a child, even though she had suppressed the memory. there, in a sense, Perkins said, but it’s “absolutely not there, but (also) totally there.”
According to the pre-release buzz, Cage delivers a rather disconcerting (gratuitous!) performance in Long legs That’s enough to make people come see him in droves. After seeing him play so many roles over the decades, it’s nice to know he can find new ways to freak people out.
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