With so many to choose from, picking a favorite Nicolas Cage film can be difficult. But if Nicolas Cage can do it, anyone can.
The Renfield star appeared on Thursday’s The Late Show, where host Stephen Colbert posed a question: “What are Nic Cage’s top five Nic Cage movies?”
After thinking for a moment, the actor replied, “I’ll start with ‘pig.’ This is my favorite film I’ve ever made.”
The 2021 drama received rave reviews for Cage’s performance as the reclusive ex-chef who sets out to track down the people who kidnapped his beloved pig while hunting for truffles.
For the other four, Cage chose the films “Mandy” (2018), “Bring the dead to life” (1999), “Bad Lieutenant: Port of call New Orleans‘ (2009) and ‘yeah(2013).
Colbert shared that his favorite Cage movie is 1997 Action thriller “Face/Off”. Cage agreed, saying, “I like that a lot. I love Face/Off.”
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The Oscar winner also addressed his previously reported dislike of the word “actor,” preferring the term “thespian” instead.
“I never said, ‘Don’t call me an actor; Call me a thespian,’” he said to Colbert, brushing off “clickbait” headlines that said so.
Cage had made the “thespian” comment during one 2021 appearance on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast after host Jenelle asked Riley if it was difficult to “live” in the emotional space of troubled characters like the one he played on Pig.
“Maybe you’re good enough that you can just turn it on and off, but I don’t think most people can,” Riley said at the time.
“I really don’t like the word ‘actor,'” Cage replied, explaining his approach to such roles.
“To me it’s always, ‘Oh, he’s a great actor, so he’s a great liar.’ … At the risk of sounding like a pretentious A-hole, I like the word “thespian” because to me “thespian” means you go into your heart, or you go into your imagination, or your memories, or your dreams , and you bring something back to communicate with the audience.”
