Nicolas Cage doesn’t consider himself an ‘actor’

Recently, Nicolas Cage shared his thoughts on the word ‘actor’ and how he would like to be addressed as a ‘thespian’.

Nicolas said,

“For me, it always implies, ‘Oh, he’s a great actor, therefore he’s a great liar…So with the risk of sounding like a pretentious a**hole, I like the word ‘thespian’ because thespian means you’re going into your heart, or you’re going into your imagination, or your memories or your dreams, and you’re bringing something back to communicate with the audience...Stanislavski said the worst thing an actor can do is imitate. Being a bit of a rebel, I wanted to break that rule. So I tried with ‘Wild at Heart,’ a Warhol-like approach to the Sailor Ripley character. In movies, like ‘Prisoners of the Ghost Land’ or even ‘Face/Off’ or ‘Vampire’s Kiss,’ I was experimenting with what I would like to call Western Kabuki or more Baroque or operatic style of film performance. Break free from the naturalism, so to speak, and express a larger way of performance.“