Actor reveals bizarre fear resurfaced during filming in WA
Star of new psychological thriller The Surfer Nicolas Cage admits he feared surfers during his younger years.
The 61-year-old actor explained how the movie, an Australian-Irish co-production filmed in Western Australia, relates to his own childhood in California.
Recalling spending weekends at Santa Monica Pier, Cage told Extra he admired boardriders but was also scared of them.
'I was quite young, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get past the group that was surfing, or, you know, the line, if you will. It was quite intimidating,' he said.
'I had a lot of admiration for surfers and for what they do, but I also feared them as a young man because they were pretty jacked up, both mentally and physically.'
In the new movie, Cage plays a man who revisits his childhood beach to surf with his son. The actor's character is pushed to his limits amid an escalating conflict.
'It's a human condition, it's a human story to think that you can repair things if you just work hard enough and buy back that house or it'll fix my marriage or it'll repair my relationship with my son ... and that desire to belong, to belong to something, to belong to anything,' the actor said.
Cage has previously described having a student-like approach to acting.
The star has achieved huge success in the film business but acknowledges he's still developing his skills.
'I certainly can't think in those terms like I've done it all,' Cage told Entertainment Tonight in 2023, despite having previously won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, among other accolades.
'I've always had the mantra that I'm a student. I've viewed my path and film-making as a student. I would never call myself a master.'
The veteran star also revealed he's always had an inquisitive mind.
'I always have something to learn, always want to learn. So, 60 is coming up for sure, so my goal is to read more. I've been lagging in that department. I'd like to read a book a week.'
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Sydney Morning Herald
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- Sydney Morning Herald
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There are many moving parts (possibly too many), but his main focus is on India and the ultimate establishment of the post-colonial state. Two figures loom large: the problematic Subhas Chandra Bose, who spent much of the war in exile in Nazi Germany and was leader of the Indian National Army (which fought with the Japanese), and Colonel Kodandera Subayya 'Timmy' Thimayya, who decided to fight with the British, defeat the Japanese, then negotiate the peace. Two divergent paths, same goal – independence. Along the way he incorporates the tales of ordinary people – such as a very astute English nurse – caught up in extraordinary times. On both a narrative and thematic level, this is skilfully told history for the general reader. The better sporting tales tend to be about more than just sport, and this is the case with Katrina Gorry's record of a sporting life that has taken her to the world stage as a member of the Matildas and current captain of West Ham United. It starts in a Brisbane backyard where 'Mini' (she is five foot one) played no-prisoners-taken soccer against her brothers, played in a boy's side when she joined a club and copped regular sprays on and off the field for being the only girl on the ground. All of which made her more determined. And this is not just a story about talent, dreaming big and success, but grit too. Plus the setbacks, the constant pressure of competing at the elite level and the effect on both her mental and physical health. But woven into this is the unfolding tale of her sexuality, choosing to have an IVF baby by herself and falling in love on Gotland. Not to mention going on strike to get better pay and conditions for the Matildas. Her family looms large, as does the concept of the team. An inspiring tale, tempered by realism. 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And Netanyahu, whom he interviewed, emerges as a dedicated war leader – never mind that the ICC has issued a warrant for his arrest as a war criminal. Highly contentious. Often as not, this jaunty, serious and funny description of life as a criminal defence lawyer reads like dispatches from the law zone. Kalantar, an advocate and public speaker, recalls the day he decided to become a lawyer. He was seven, wrongly accused of making a face to his teacher and betrayed by a classmate, the injustice staying with him. Mind you, he initially took a wrong turn into banking, before an inspiring lecturer guided him into law. It's shot through with lessons from the coalface, especially in regard to making assumptions about accused clients – one, in particular, whom he dubs Genghis Khan, whose responses (through an interpreter) to questioning he completely misread. In another poignant episode, he outlines the way two close brothers fell out over the contents of their mother's will. In many ways, his subject is the human comedy in all its shades of dark and light. Not to mention courtroom stuff-ups and confessional moments such as his ADHD. Serious matters, but told with an ironic eye. In 1802, the father of the smallpox vaccine, Englishman Edward Jenner, was satirised in the papers, one cartoon depicting him injecting a terrified woman who is turning into a cow (the vaccine coming from cowpox). The scaremongering and pseudoscience surrounding vaccination, as epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre shows in this clear-sighted, plain-speaking study, goes back that far. And, after COVID, it has resurfaced again with the rise of anti-vaxxers. Astonishing, when we consider that vaccinations over the last 200 years have virtually eradicated deadly diseases such as smallpox and polio, which are particularly dangerous for children – infant mortality rates plummeting. 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Perth Now
4 hours ago
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Sad career update as Nick Kyrgios dropped from major roles
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