Nicolas Cage has opened up about the poignant inspiration behind his creepy character in upcoming horror movie, Longlegs.
The scare-fest is set to be released on July 12 but already boasts an impressive 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes from terrified reviewers.
In the flick, the 60-year-old plays a serial killer being pursued by FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), who leaves letters by the bodies at his crimes scenes, under the name of Longlegs.
The investigation takes a sharp turn when occult evidence is uncovered, with Lee also discovering a personal link to the murderer.
Little else is known about director Osgood Perkins’ wild new film – which is just how he wants it – but Cage touched on how he got into the mindset of such a chilling character, explaining that his late mother was behind his portrayal.
Joy Vogelsang, who shares the Hollywood icon with August Coppola, died in May, 2021, at the age of 85.
She battled severe depression, mental health issues and schizophrenia throughout her life, and the Renfield actor used his own experience of seeing this to build up his character.
‘I was coming at it from, what exactly was it that drove my mother insane?,’ he said of Longlegs in a new interview. ‘It was a deeply personal kind of performance for me because I grew up trying to cope with what she was going through.
‘She would talk in terms that were kind of poetry. I didn’t know how else to describe it. I tried to put that in the Longlegs character because he’s really a tragic entity. He’s at the mercy of these voices that are talking to him and getting him to do these things.’
Cage also serves as a producer of Longlegs, while Blair Underwood and Alicia Witt make up the cast.
So far, there have only been brief glimpses of the creepy killer in the trailer and posters, which Perkins is hoping lasts until cinema-goers are firmly in their seats.
‘It’s the equivalent of putting a warning label on a jar of nitroglycerin,’ Nicolas continued to Entertainment Weekly. ‘The monster is a highly, highly dangerous substance. The way it’s moved, unveiled, deployed has to be treated very carefully.
‘Forget about the movie theater blowing up; the whole city could blow up, nay the country, maybe even the world. He is going to change your reality. Your doors of perception are going to open, and your life is not going to be the same.’
Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer, shared three children with Coppola – Cage, Marc and Christopher Coppola.
The latter confirmed the news of her tragic death in a lengthy social media post three years ago, branding her his ‘mama lioness’.
Cage has previously spoke out over his bond with their mother and her struggles with her mental health, and even credited her for his creative streak.
‘She was plagued with mental illness for most of my childhood,’ he told Playboy magazine, via Entertainment Weekly. ‘She was institutionalized for years and went through shock treatments.
‘She would go into these states that lasted for years. She went through these episodes of poetry – I don’t know what else to call it. She would say the most amazing things, beautiful but scary. I’m sure they had an impact on me.
‘The strangest thing about it is that, even when things got really bizarre, I was able to detach and look at it with a scientific curiosity. I’m sure it had some impact on me, though. I do consider her the driving force in my creativity.’