Addiction: Alcohol What To Say: Alcohol is linked to depression What Not To Say: Down it! Down it! Down it! The nineties were a far simpler time for Nicolas Cage. He made good films, had yet to run into financial difficulty forcing him to make any old rubbish and actually had real hair. He also won an Oscar for his portrayal of alcoholic Ben Sanderson in Mike Figgis Leaving Las Vegas. Playing a failed screenwriter whose drinking has cost him his job, family and friends, Nicolas Cages character decides to head to Las Vegas, where drunks are afforded an air of invisibility, with the goal of drinking himself to death. While there he forms a touching relationship with an experienced prostitute who he makes promise will never ask him to stop drinking. Cages preparation for his role included interviewing hospital bound career alcoholics and going binge drinking in Dublin for two weeks while a friend videotaped him so he could study his speech. Cage has since described the research (or getting p*ssed to you and me) as one of the most enjoyable of his career. His research paid off. His bravura performance was the antithesis of the stereotypical Hollywood drunk (think Jack Sparrow), never made light of the addiction in question and was completely believable in this excellent but tragic love story.
