Nicolas Cage attends the New York premiere of “Renfield”.Photo:ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty
Warning: Spoilers forThe Flashfollow…
Nicolas Cageis finally opening up about his surprise cameo DC fans have all been talking about for months.
The Academy Award winner, 59, spoke withUSA Todaythis week about his appearance as Superman inThe Flash— over two decades after the cancellation of his unproduced 1998Superman Livesfilm.
“Well, I was glad I didn’t blink,” Cage joked about the brief cameo, which occurs at the end of the blockbuster.
“For me, it was the feeling of being actualized. Even that look for that particular character, finally seeing it on screen, was satisfying. But as I said, it’s quick,” he added.
The Flashitself wasfull of cameos, as Cage appeared whileEzra Miller’s Barry Allen hit the multiverse and explored alternate realities featuring Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Helen Slater’s Supergirl, Adam West’s Batman, and George Reeves' Superman.
Jason Koerner/WireImage
But Cage’s cameo as the Man of Steel marked his first-ever legitimate onscreen appearance as the hero, afterSuperman Liveswasscrapped entirely before pre-production wrapped in ‘99.
“If you really wanted to know what I was going do with that character, look at my performance inCity of Angels,” Cage toldUSA Today.
“I was supposed [to play] Clark Kent after that, and I was already developing this alien otherness playing this angel,” he added. “That is a perfect example of the tonality you would’ve gotten for Kal-El and for Clark Kent: Clark would’ve been a little more amusing but Kal-El [had] the sensitivity and the goodness and the vulnerability and all those feelings that were kind of angelic and also terrifying.”
Cage, who even namedone of his sonsKal-El after Superman’s birth name from his home planet Krypton, was “absolutely wonderful” to work with onThe Flash, directorAndy Muschiettipreviously toldEsquire Middle East. “He is a massive Superman fan. A comic book fanatic… Although the role was a cameo, he dove into it.”
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As forSuperman Lives, Cage previously toldVarietyin March that “it was more of a 1980s Superman with, like, the samurai black long hair. I thought it was gonna be a really different, sort of emo Superman, but we never got there."
“They wanted [director] Renny Harlin to do the movie,” he continued. “But I thought if I’m going to do this, it’s such a bullseye to hit … I said, this has to be Tim Burton. I called Tim and said, ‘Would you do this?’ Tim didn’t cast me, I cast Tim, and Tim said yes. I loved what he did with Michael [Keaton] and Batman, and I was a big fan.”
Cage’s Superman never came to fruition because Burton’s 1996 flickMars Attackswasn’t enough of a box office hit, he previously shared. “They were scared at the studio because ofMars Attacks. Warner Bros. had lost a lot of money on the movie. These movies that are really weird, that challenge and break ground, they piss a lot of people off. I think they got cold feet.”
source: people.com
