This is an interview with actor Ben Mendelsohn, who co-starred with Nic in Knowing and is also in Trespass. The interview is not about Nic per say, but he does talk about him in response to questions from the Shiznit interviewer, they are big Nic fans at Shiznit! It is quite interesting, so I am posting it here. I will just put the relevant part, you can read the whole interview at the link.
Here at The Shiznit, we have a particular fondness for the eccentric Nicolas Cage. What was it like working with him on Knowing?
BM:[gets quite defensive] I really like Nic. I’ve done two films with him – there’s another called Trespass, which is coming out shortly. All I’ve ever found with Nic is that he’s a ball to work with, he’s a lot of fun and he’s extremely into what he does. I don’t know Nic outside of work so I can only speak about what it’s like to be on a set with him, but I love it. He’s very alive when he works. And, y’know some of the best people are the eccentric ones.
: Oh yeah, of c...
BM: He’s unpredictable. You don’t know how he’s gonna be. He’s not a hostile person, but he’s someone with very strong feelings and he’s found a way to channel that and make it work. And Nic’s clearly done a mountain of films, and some of them are going to be remembered for a very, very, very long time to come and some of them won’t be. But I would never speak ill of Nic because I adore him. Y’know, I played his best friend and then I played his nemesis...
: We adore him too...
BM: Ah ok. I was being a tad guarded because I know that Nic is often remarked on for his exterior-to-work eccentricities, but I love him. He's very inventive, he’s very permissive – you can do whatever it is you wanna do. If there’s a problem going on with the scene, he’s very into getting into it and fixing it. But I think he’s incredibly inventive and his body of work is phenomenal. [Ed's note – I tried several times to interrupt and reassure Ben that there was no need to convince me that Nic Cage wasn’t a terrible person, but he seemed determined. I then realised that I had already severely gone over my allotted time.]