Nicolas Cage Discusses ‘The Old Way,’ The ‘Renfield’ Trailer And A ‘Snake Eyes’ Sequel

Nicolas Cage has tackled almost every genre in cinema, but until The Old Way, he has never made a Western.

“I’ve been doing this since I was 15. It’s getting to be almost 45 years now, and I am as mystified as anybody else. I’m scratching my head,” he mused. “It’d be one thing if you were saying, ‘We want Nic for a medieval Shakespearean play, and we want him to play King Richard III.’ I can understand where people might wonder if that would or wouldn’t work, but I don’t understand not putting me in a hat and some boots for a Western.”

The indie sees the actor play a retired gunslinger called Colton Briggs. When the son of a man he shot returns many years later and murders Briggs’ wife, the trained killer and his daughter set out on a journey of retribution to settle the score once and for all.

I caught up with Cage to chat about why he picked The Old Way as his gateway project to the genre, his reaction to the trailer for his highly-anticipated Dracula movie, Renfield, dropping online, and why he’d love to make a Snake Eyes sequel.

Simon Thompson: I’ll ask you about The Old Way in a moment, but it’s a wonderful coincidence today that we’re talking just a few hours after the Renfield trailer has dropped. Were you aware that would be the case? Are you aware of how well it’s been going down so far?

Nicolas Cage: I’m not. I haven’t seen much because I had to drop my 17-year-old off at school this morning, and then I had to prepare for what we were doing. Is it playing well?

Thompson: It’s playing really well. The response has been very favorable.

Cage: Oh, good. That’s great. I’m thrilled to hear that, and no, I did not know it was dropping today, so this is nice news. Thank you for telling me.

Thompson: In the last couple of years, the success of several of your movies has been fuelled and influenced by trailers blowing up online. It happened with Mandy, Willy’s Wonderland, and most recently, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent last year. It’s becoming an increasingly significant mechanic.

Cage: I think so, although the trailer has always been something that I was excited by just going to the cinema. I almost got more excited by the trailers than by the movies themselves because I was so curious. What is this about? You don’t have all the answers yet. It’s enigmatic and entertaining.

Thompson: Much like yourself. I was very surprised to find out that The Old Way is your first and only Western. How is that so? Had you just not been offered them? Was it a case of the right one coming along, and if so, why was this one the right one?

Cage: I don’t recall ever being offered a Western. I’ve been doing this since I was 15. It’s getting to be almost 45 years now, and I am as mystified as anybody else. I’m scratching my head. It’d be one thing if you said, ‘We want Nic for a medieval Shakespearean play, and we want him to play King Richard III.’ I can understand where people might be wondering if that would or wouldn’t work, but I don’t understand not putting me in a hat and some boots for a Western. I grew up in California. I live in Nevada, and I think it’s an easy match, but it has never happened until now. I’m glad I said yes because I grew up watching Charles Bronson on his harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West; it’s still one of my favorite performances ever, and I wanted to do it before it was too late. I’m not getting any younger, so I was like, ‘You’re going to pay me to dress the way I like to dress and pay homage to some of my favorite movie stars of all time? Well, I’m there.’ My stomach grumbles just like anybody else’s.

Thompson: What did you find in Colton Briggs as a character that you haven’t been able to find in other wrong-righting revenge-seeking roles? You have done numerous versions over the years.

Cage: That’s right. I grew up a fan of The Count of Monte Cristo; I liked the passion of that kind of narrative. Revenge can be blood-pounding, but this is framed in the West; we’re dressed in the Western style, and the time is the golden age of the West, but at the heart of it, what made me want to jump in was this family drama between Colton and his daughter, Brooke. These are two social misfits, a family, biological father, and daughter, but they both have this condition, which is never explained, that they are both incapable of feeling love. They have to act as if they can cry and have to act like they can laugh at people’s jokes to fit into society. They also both have a propensity towards violence and so what was interesting to me was how you take these almost robots and try to make them have emotion without betraying the conditions of that character. You don’t want to be accused of phoning it in, and you don’t want to be accused of sleepwalking, but nonetheless, that’s how they are going through life. That’s the condition of the character. How do you have them learn to love and love each other? Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s performance completely blew me away. At her age, to have that much depth, complexity, and maturity and to play that nuance where you can go either way, you must still be emotionally compelling yet not show emotion. That is not an easy ask. She was A+.

Thompson: 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of Snake Eyes. You get asked about sequels to a handful of your movies but have you ever thought about returning to Rick Santoro post-jail?

Cage: Heck, man. I didn’t know that. Thank you for reminding me. I don’t usually watch my old movies, but I might watch that one because there was a lot there that has not been uncovered yet that could be rediscovered. To answer your question, Yeah. I would work with Brian De Palma again on a sequel to that in a heartbeat. I think it was a good character. Brian’s one of our great geniuses in cinema; I’d love to make a movie with him.

Thompson: It could also work as a limited series.

Cage: You could do that too. My 17-year-old has got me watching immersive television, and he got me into Breaking Bad. Oh my God, they are so good in that show. Immersive television is a unique genre because you have so much more time to play out scenes. You’re not boxed into a timeline. You can have these scenes be half the episode if you want. It’s quite something.

Thompson: Con Air celebrated a milestone anniversary last year. There were rumors of a sequel being in the works. What can you tell me about that?

Cage: I haven’t heard anything about that. I can’t picture that ever happening, so that’s news to me. No one came to me or talked to me about anything to do with that.

The Old Way is in theaters now and available on Premium VOD and Premium Digital from Friday, January 13, 2023