10 Comic Book Movie Performances ONLY Made Possible By Intense Method Acting
1. Nicolas Cage Channeled Spirits To Become Ghost Rider (Ghost Rider)
Nicolas Cage's zany, off-kilter acting style is well-known among fans, being responsible for numerous "Nic Cage losing his s***" montages on YouTube, not to mention a Best Actor Oscar for his fantastic work as a terminal alcoholic in 1995's Leaving Las Vegas.
Cage employs a special acting technique he refers to as "Nouveau Shamanic", which allows him to create a performance that apparently transcends the very notion of acting, where the performance no longer feels like a "lie", but real to the actor himself.
Cage said of his prep for both Ghost Rider movies, "It occurred to me, because I was doing a character as far out of our reference point as the spirit of vengeance, I could use these (Shaman) techniques. I would paint my face with black and white make up to look like an Afro-Caribbean icon called Baron Samadhi, or an Afro-New Orleans icon who is also called Baron Saturday...And I would put black contact lenses in my eyes so that you could see no white and no pupil, so I would look more like a skull or a white shark on attack.
On my costume, my leather jacket, I would sew in ancient, thousands-of-years-old Egyptian relics, and gather bits of tourmaline and onyx and would stuff them in my pockets to gather these energies together and shock my imagination into believing that I was augmented in some way by them, or in contact with ancient ghosts. I would walk on the set looking like this, loaded with all these magical trinkets, and I wouldn’t say a word to my co-stars or crew or directors. I saw the fear in their eyes, and it was like oxygen to a forest fire. I believed I was the Ghost Rider."
Well, s***. Isn't that just the most Nicolas Cage thing ever? And what more really needs to be said?
Which insane superhero method acting proved most effective? Shout it out in the comments!