I love the fact that this film has several references to Nic Cage's body of work. Starting with you, Kevin, was there any particular film of his that sparked the idea of "The Unbearable Weight"?
Etten: My mother loved the movie "Moonstruck." I remember seeing that at an early age and remember his performance in it and how electrifying and funny and real it was, and then into my teens, when "The Rock" came out ... that movie, still to this day, if it's on, I won't turn it off.
Really, he has such a wide body of work. He's done every kind of genre. When we were talking about this idea, Tom had sparked it off by saying, "What about Nic Cage playing Nick Cage?" I immediately said yes because I had such a love for, not only his movies, but also him as an artist, as a guy who follows his own path in his own way and doesn't care what anybody thinks.
Do you feel the same way, Tom? What film is it that lit the spark for you?
Gormican: There's two performances that Nic gives that I always come back to, that I really love, and they're indicative of the types of character we had him play in this film. It's "Raising Arizona" and "Adaptation." In "Raising Arizona," it's this big, broad comedic performance that you're drawn into on an emotional level; and in "Adaptation," you've got him playing two different characters, which we do in this film. There's [two] characters in this film, but it's split, and that was a big influence on us. That performance is really nuanced and detailed and very small and natural and real, and I thought those are two very different versions of Nic Cage that we tried to channel in "Unbearable Weight."
