Nicolas Cage appeared as a serial killer chased by Maika Monroe’s FBI agent Lee Harker in ‘Longlegs.’ His performance received good reviews from critics so far, but the actor isn’t interested in playing a similar character in the future. His recent words to The New Yorker read:
“I know that the phone’s going to be ringing off the hook to play serial killers after ‘Longlegs.’ And that’s not really what I like to do. I don’t like violence. I don’t want to play people who are hurting people.”
Cage’s Screen Time As Longlegs
The teasers for ‘Longlegs’ gave away very little about Cage’s killer apart from his grotesque appearance achieved by prosthetics. The actor said having little screen time helped make his reveal in the film impactful and shared:
“It would have been a slippery slope. I think it could have lapsed into something almost too ridiculous. You don’t want to see that the shark is made of rubber, you know? You want the shark to be terrifying and keep it under the water for a lot of it.”
The Reveal Was ‘Shocking’ To His Co-Actor
Director Osgood Perkins kept Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage separate from each other until the scene where Lee Harker saw Longlegs to add to the suspense. A promo video named ‘Heartbeat’ teased the reaction around a week ahead of the film’s release.
Monroe commented on the scene by saying:
“Seeing Nic for the first time in costume, I hadn’t seen any photos or anything before, so that was shocking. Also, not only was I seeing Nic — or rather Longlegs — for the first time, but the cameras were rolling at this point. It was this very surreal, very nerve-wracking experience.”
‘Longlegs’ premiered on July 12.
