‚I hate that song more than any other song,‘ actor says
„Rant“ isn’t right. It wasn’t exactly a rant, at least not by Nicolas Cage standards. Anybody who’s seen him on-screen knowns that Nic Cage can rant like nobody else, and this wasn’t that.
Cage was, however, ardently expressing his deep-seated disdain — for the hokey-pokey.
Yes, that hokey-pokey. Turns out, Cage hates that song. Hates it.
But in writer-director Brian Taylor’s darkly comic and startlingly violent horror satire “ Mom and Dad,“ about a mysterious illness that causes parents to go full Freddy Krueger on their children, Cage’s character goes to some strange places. To get into that headspace, the actor found himself going to strange places of his own. Like the hokey-pokey.
„That was a song that really frustrated me when I was a kid,“ Cage said Wednesday, calling to talk about „Mom and Dad,“ which opens in theaters Friday (Jan. 19). „In kindergarten, you know, it was one of these Bureau of Education songs that were designed to separate the coordinated kids from the discoordinated kids, and I was a discoordinated kid and I had friends who were discoordinated. I took great umbrage with that.“
So, when it came time for a scene in „Mom and Dad“ in which Cage’s character — a suburban father of two whose unremarkable life is careening toward homicidal madness — must repeatedly, operatically sledgehammer a pool table, Cage knew how to find his motivation. He put his left hand in, he took his left hand out…
„I thought, well, I’ll just sing the hokey-pokey,“ he said. „I hate that song more than any other song and I resent them for making me do it as a child.“
An odd source of inspiration? Perhaps. What’s even more odd is that it did the trick, inspiring a memorable, show-stopping bout of vitriolic rage, all set to Cage’s screaming of the words to the hokey-pokey. And if that idea seems a bit ridiculous, a bit over the top — well, that’s „Mom & Dad.“
In Taylor’s film, audiences are treated to Cage’s most fevered and unhinged performance this side of “ Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans .“ His slavering, seething father figure is wide-eyed, he is frenzied, he is frightening. Selma Blair is his match as his on-screen wife and partner in filicide as they hunt their own offspring.
Cage says he loved every bit of it. „I think it’s important, especially in a movie like this, where there has to be a comedic element, for the players to have fun with it,“ he said.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s good at playing nutjobs. He’s played similar, off-their-rocker characters before. Consequently, he knows what will work and what doesn’t as far as putting him such a unique mindset.
„I can pull from anything,“ Cage said. „I could read the newspaper every day and find something that will help me get somewhere if I don’t have my own memories to inform the performance. I did that in a movie called ‚Joe,‘ where I read about a kid who fell into a dog pit at a zoo, wild dogs, and he died (at) like 3 years old. That really angered me and so I put that in the ‚Joe‘ performance, and even did a bit of dialog about it, and it got me to the place where I needed to go.
„So I can use current events, I can use dreams, I can use my own imagination, I can use my memories — there’s a lot of stuff out there to pull from, especially at this time in the world.“
By most early accounts, it works in „Mom and Dad.“ In its review of the film, The Hollywood Reporter writes: „Zero-to-60 speed crazy is pretty much right in Cage’s wheelhouse, and he offers up a perfectly amusing comical workout of the madman shtick he could pretty much do in this sleep at this point.“
Variety adds: „This giddy exercise transcends mere bad-taste humor to become one of the great jet-black comedies about suburbia, destined for the same cult-classic status accorded ‚The Stepford Wives,‘ ‚Parents‘ and „Heathers.'“
Even the Washington Post, which didn’t care for the film overall, admitted that Cage’s turn was „glorious“ and „one of his most vibrant performances in years.“
That the Post also calls Cage „the greatest ham actor of his generation“ is entirely beside the point. Cage, for his part, likes what he, Blair and Taylor have done in „Mom and Dad.“
„I do like the movie a lot,“ he said. „I’m very happy with the result. It felt like we hit a target, Brian Taylor and I, that we both wanted to achieve.
