Nicolas Cage was actually drunk in the emblematic scene "Leaving Las Vegas"

The winner of an Oscar was "completely out of his face," said the director of the film.


Nicolas Cage said The independent in 1996 that being casting in 1995 Leave Las Vegas It was "an opportunity to return to a more sensitive style of action" and to fill its potential with dramatic roles after a slight career crisis in the early 90s. But by reading the scenario, it feared that a lack Of personal experience of alcoholism could hamper his representation of the main character Ben Sanderson. "I had no relationship with alcohol myself," he said at the exit. He tried to attend 12 -step meetings and to seek the most devastating effects of alcohol on the body to participate in this role. But when none of these things gave him the confidence he needed, Cage hugged to film a key scene - in fact, he was "completely out of his face", according to the frustrated director of the film. Continue reading to learn more.

Read this then: Oliver Stone said that working with Richard Dreyfuss was "the worst experience" of his career .

Cage hired a "drinking coach" to help him get into character.

In a look in 2018 on his best performances to Gq ,, Cage reflecting on the preparation of the role . He remembers having studied "all the great alcoholic performance", as Kris Kristofferson In A star is born and borrow everyone's inspiration. Then, a family member suggested taking an even closer study.

"My cousin, Roman Coppola , said, "You should go, hire Tony" - Tony Dingman , who was at that time ... very drunk and also a poet, "said Cage." "Hire him and look at him and ask him to be your coach." ""

Dingman, a family friend and Self -proclaimed "drunk" who had helped the father of a novel, director Francis Ford Coppola , during the shooting of the 1997 Jack , Inspiration provided not only the cage of "Elegance in ruin" hoped to impregnate Sanderson, but also word inspiration for many of its lines. "He would say the most poetic and drunk things, like:" you do not hit the bar, you lean in the bar because it is not "Vino Veritas", it is "in Vino Veritas" " , said cage to GQ. "He had just put all these things, and of course, I would put them all in the film . ""

"I got it on the set with me all the time," added Cage. "The poor guy [was] curled up in a fetal position in my trailer while I played bongos because I was trying to get a kind of syncopated rhythm, a kind of music for the character."

The director refused the cage request to drink at work.

Nicolas Cage in 1996
Zuffing Vinnie / Michael Ochs Archive / Getty Images

Having Dingman on the set was not enough for cage, according to Leave Las Vegas screenwriter and director Mike Figgis . "He wanted Make the whole movie drunk "The filmmaker said The telegraph In 2022. The film's five -week shooting calendar, among other practical questions, bothered. "But he made a completely scene of his face," added Figgis.

The scene in question Understands the character of Cage who suddenly bursts in a Casino Blackjack table after meeting a waitress who perhaps reminds him of the ex-wife who left a long time ago with his son. Sanderson shouts: "I am his father", returns a table and unleashes passers -by before being removed by security guards.

"He drank a bottle of vodka before the scene," said Figgis about filming, and Cage admitted so much In an appearance in 2003 on Inside the actor's studio , by Business Insider. "I never drink when I act, but I wanted to incorporate, in certain scenes, real consumption," he said. "So this scene in the casino when I panic, I'm really drunk."

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The production was almost thrown from the casino because a drunk cage "had gone mad".

Nicolas Cage with his Oscar in 1996
Zuffing Vinnie / Michael Ochs Archive / Getty Images

The final cup of the scene deviates considerably from the original script, which is vanishing at the table and never evoking his son. "It was in a way a primary cry that came out of me that was not in the script," admitted cage Inside the actor's studio . AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

While the scene is striking - and helped Cage to win the best actor Oscar for his work - Figgis shared that there were impact on drunk improvisation. "I was very angry with him because he didn't tell me," said the director The independent . "Someone injured himself and he broke the equipment. The boss of the pit was furious and was going to throw us until the public ... We applaud. We were in the width of the handle to be thrown away , because Nic had gone mad. "

Cage used an experience with another substance to supply subsequent performance.

This acclaimed performance would not be the last time that Cage is inspired by substances while entering the character. Director Werner Herzog Tented by worrying about the actor now 59 years old. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans . "" Nic was so realistic I was afraid, "he recalls Vulture on a scene in which the character of Cage hollows in a bag of cocaine and begins to sniff it.

This may be due to the fact that the actor had Recently prescribed real cocaine To deal with a sinus problem - a fairly routine treatment in Australia, he said at a press conference for the film, according to ALL RIGHT! Magazine . The effect of the drug gave him inspiration on how his character should react to use it, he explained. "I went out and I just started taking notes and I noticed that my mouth was getting really dry and I felt very invincible and I started improvising the scenes and finding ideas and I had a lot Step then then I did it in the script in the script-that's COKE, so that's what it does here, there will be a lot of swallowing, a lot of lips, "he said.

Despite these heads of the head plunged in his roles, Cage says that he is not a Method actor . Rather, he enters the character via an approach that he nicknamed " Shamanism again "He said to Insider in 2022." The process itself is: how do you increase your imagination in a healthy way? So that you can believe that you are these characters, "he said.


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