Being a huge fan of Nic's directorial debut 'Sonny', this interview with James Franco caught my interest. Lol, the media could have a spinning frenzy field day with this !
"After receiving a Golden Globe for his performance as James Dean, Franco recalled taking roles in the 2002 Robert De Niro film “City by the Sea” and Nicolas Cage’s 2002 directorial debut “Sonny.”
“He was great actually,” Franco said of Cage’s directorial ability. “It’s nice to have an actor as a director because there are certain things that they understand that you just know they understand. They’re looking out for you in ways that a director that doesn’t have acting experience just can’t really know.”
“Nic certainly was very conscientious about all [my] needs as an actor at the time. I fancied myself pretty intense. But he was into that. So he allowed me to do all that weird actor stuff. But also on the research side of it, I was playing a male prostitute so I wanted to go meet male prostitutes. And [Nic] also wanted to meet male prostitutes.”
For Cage and Franco, meeting male prositutes was not as simple as it seemed.
“The problem was [Nic] wanted to do it undercover. I was just the guy who had been on this TV show, that I guess hadn’t hit New Orleans, so nobody recognized me. But Nic Cage, when he wanted to go undercover, he had to do it with like seven other people. So we went to this like 200-year-old bar… and I would bring the prostitutes in there as he would sit in the shadows. It was a great experience.”"
Oh, yeah, I can see the story headlines now! Hey, Nic sounds like a great director, and I love that he wants to knowand understand what he is telling a story about.
Lol!! I can too Lady True....they are flashing through my mind as I write!!
The results speak for themselves, Sonny, for me, is a powerful, moving, beautiful clever flim...I found all of the performances incredibly potent (but most notably, James Franco) and some of the cinematography breathtaking...not in terms of grandeur, just the attention to detail, the movement of the camera and the framing of certain shots...and there was the indelible flavor you are left with after the experience..that for me is the essense of a film.
It has to be an advantage having been on the other side of the camera..not only in terms of empowering the actors, but also just having that whole feel for being within the film itself..that is what appeeals to me about nic doing this the intimacy he can have with the material..the vison he can bring to life..anyway, we've read he itends to direct again when the time is tight. ideally writing and directing and starring in his own film..lol..not that i want much! ha ha!!