Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Written by Judy Sloane Wednesday, 18 November 2009 20:28

Interview

Nicolas Cage tells us all about harnessing his demons to play a troubled cop in Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Back in 1992, Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant starred Harvey Keitel as a corrupt New York cop battling his own demons as he tried crack a murder case. Almost two decades later and German director Werner Herzog has reimagined this premise with Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which stars Nicolas Cage as a drug and gambling addict investigating the killing of five immigrants in post-Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. We caught up with the Oscar-winning actor, who tells us how he holds on to his independence while playing Hollywood at its own game...

He just is. I don’t judge him, or think of him as bad or good. It’s more existential. Not a part of any religious program, which is what I think separates it mostly from the other film. It just is.

You were instrumental in choosing the location; why New Orleans?

I felt that I had to go through a catharsis, that I had to face my fears. New Orleans is a very potent city in my life for various reasons. It’s a combination of different energies – African, French, English, Spanish, and there’s a lot of magic there, and I’ve had a lot of experiences there, and I wanted to go back there and confront it. I knew that I would channel that energy, and it could either be a disaster, or be something beautiful, or so I was up for the challenge.

You’ve described this role as being ‘impressionistic’, and your Leaving Las Vegas role as ‘photorealistic’. Can you explain this?

A lot of people like to say things like “over-the-top”, but you can’t say that about other art forms, such as a Picasso, or a Van Gogh, but why can’t it be the same with acting? In Leaving Las Vegas, I had a couple of drinks. I wanted to. I had prescribed scenes where I decided I would get drunk, and anything goes. And I’m glad I did it. But with Bad Lieutenant, I say that this is Impressionistic, because I was totally sober, and I was looking at a landscape from over 20 years ago, and I wasn’t sure I could do it. It was a challenge. But I believe that the filter of my instrument would give you something more exciting because it was Impressionistic.

What are some of the influences that helped you develop the personality of your character?

I was in Australia when I got the script. The strangest thing is that in Australia, they still use cocaine to clear your sinuses, and I had a massive sinus infection. I was trying to understand how to recall something from 100 years in my past, and I couldn’t get it, and then they sent me to the doctor, and he put this cocaine solution in my nose, then I came out and just started taking notes, and I noticed that my mouth was getting really dry, and I was feeling very invincible, then I started doing the scenes, and improvising the scenes, and coming up with ideas, and swallowing a lot. Then I was graphing it in the script, finding scenes where he was doing coke, and figured out how to behave, to start swallowing a lot, or do a lot of lip smacking. Or scenes where he’d be doing heroin, and I figured he’d be very itchy, and there’s gonna be nodding, and he’s gonna be much slower. The problem is, I didn’t know when Werner was gonna cut the scene with me taking the heroin, or the scene with me taking the coke, so we’d have to regraph the whole direction of the performance.

How did you find working with Werner?

I think Werner and I had a perfect marriage. He moves very quickly. My best takes are my first two takes. He has confidence in what I’m going to do and I have confidence in what he’s going to do, that he’ll get it. Sometimes I do love to rehearse, but I always switch it up depending on whom I’m working with. I know Werner likes to do as little rehearsal as possible, because he likes freshness and spontaneity, and I appreciate that.

What are the differences to you in acting in independent films, and acting in Hollywood films?

I have been blessed to be able to be eclectic, and I thankful for that. As I got older, with my work, I became aware of the responsibility of film, and I feel one of the best ways I can apply myself as an actor, is to go beyond movie stardom and celebrity. These movies, these so called Popcorn movies, or family movies, actually provide something quite beautiful and something quite necessary, which is a family bonding experience. So God bless the popcorn film. Especially movies where you can take the kids, because I remember looking forward to seeing these movies with my parents, and if I can give that back, I’m gonna do it. I don’t care if people have criticism for it or not, I think it’s a good thing. And I still have interest in the midnight audience. I wanna make movies for my roots, the people who like to go see Bad Lieutenant at midnight, or Vampire’s Kiss, or Bringing Out The Dead, or Wild At Heart, so I’m gonna keep doing a little bit of everything.

At this point in your career, you basically do what you want to do. What do you look for when choosing a role, and are you satisfied with continuing to play dark characters?

I do have a personal code that I try to apply. I may be alone in this, but I do sense the power of film, in that movies have the ability to literally change people’s minds. That’s pretty powerful stuff when you consider that. So I try to be responsible with what I want to project, in terms of who’s going to go see it, particularly when it pertains to children, which is a priority of mine. So I am trying to go way from too much killing, and gratuitous violence and things like that, and if I do play a character like that, I have to understand why he’s like that, how he got there, to be that way. And then it’s just the matter of figuring out whether there’s some truth in it, is there any way I can play the part truthfully, can I give you something new, or unusual, that has a bit of truth.

What validates your work for you at this point in your career?

I don’t need anybody to tell me anything, really. I just feel it. It’s a zone thing. It’s hard to describe these things, because they’re pretty abstract. If you can imagine like there’s a solid piece of wax in the center of your heart, and there’s a little needle that’s pressing through the wax, and it gets out to the other side, then you know you’ve hit it. That’s what it feels like.

Read our The Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans Review