Here is an excellent interview with Nic from from 2006 about World Trade Center. I don't believe it is already posted here. I so enjoyed reading this, it is a really good insight into his motivation and feeling for the role.

http://movies.ign.com/articles/724/724189p1.html

IGN Interview: Nicolas Cage

We talk with the star of World Trade Center.

August 8, 2006

Nicolas Cage stars in Paramount's World Trade Centeralongside Michael Pe¿a, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stephen Dorff, Jay Hernandez and Michael Shannon. The Oliver Stone-directed film recounts the rescue of Port Authority police officers John McLoughlin (Cage) and Will Jimeno (Pe¿a) from the rubble of the WTC towers in the aftermath of 9/11. They were among only 20 survivors pulled out alive from Ground Zero. 

IGN FilmForce recently had the opportunity to speak with the Oscar-winning Cage about World Trade Center and his role in it. 

IGN FILMFORCE: You've lost some weight for this movie. You've slimmed down a bit. 

NICOLAS CAGE: I was. Actually, I was thinner in World Trade Center than I am now. I was working out a lot. And I'd also been on another movie called Ghost Rider, which I'd shot before World Trade Center, where I had to be very lean. So, yes, some of that spilled over. I was running a lot. That might be why. 

IGNFF: How much did you know about the World Trade Center movie before you signed on? 

CAGE: I didn't know much. I knew that I'd read an excellent script, which I thought was a very positive, very simple portrayal of that day. And I knew Oliver was directing it. The script came to me at a time when I'd been thinking about applying my abilities as an actor to something that would be genuinely healing. Not just in an entertaining way, but in a way that could maybe genuinely address a genuine wound that we were all trying to cope with. 

IGNFF: So the notion of revisiting 9/11 was good timing? 

CAGE: Yes, it felt like... literally like an answer to my prayers. For six months I'd been reflecting and thinking about how I could get to the next step and do some good acting, and all that implies. 

IGNFF: So much of the movie takes place in a really claustrophobic predicament. How did you go about preparing for something like that? On the set, could you really feel the confinement? 

CAGE: Yeah. It was very confining at some points. But you know, I always feel a little strange talking about this because I never want to complain. I never want to sound like I'm complaining about it, because it's so minimal compared to what really happened to John [McLoughlin], you know? But it's funny you mention that because my wife, when she saw the movie, she thought about that confinement. She just sort of sees me go off to work and doesn't really see what happens outside of that. Here she was startled. She'd said, "That must have been a lot." But I don't think of it that way. I feel that it was a confined space and there was nothing that I could really do about it. So, it just helped with my imagination to try to create some small version of John's reality on that day. 

IGNFF: How much time did you spend with John? 

CAGE: A few days. I went out to his house and spoke with him. He allowed me to interview him on videotape. I asked him thousands of questions. I'd go home to my hotel room and view and re-view the interviews, and try to get his mannerisms down, his vocal intonations, dialect. And distill that and get an essence of John McLoughlin. The best and most helpful thing was his talking about how he got through it, where he went to survive. It was feelings about his family. Prayer. And Will Jimeno. And there was sort of this stalwart attitude that he was not going to succumb to death in his mind. One of the things I like about the movie is how pro-family it is. It does show Donna [McLoughlin's wife, played by Bello] and her spirit helping him get through it. 

IGNFF: How well was the real life John able to convey exactly the pain and the emotions he was going through. Was he able to express that? 

CAGE: There's still – what do they call it? – post-traumatic stress. There's still all these really hard emotional things. It's not an easy thing to go back to that day, but he wanted to participate and help us. He had a lot of faith, though. He had a lot of faith in Oliver and faith in me. He was happy to talk about it, especially when he talks about the kids, but it's just, you know... not easy. 

IGNFF: The movie's position towards religion, it treats it very honestly. Very open about how some characters are very close to their faith. What did you think of that when you saw the final version of the movie? 

CAGE: I thought it was very accurate, very authentic. Somebody once said there are no atheists in foxholes. I've met a lot of people who've served. I asked a lot of people from Desert Storm and Korea, "How did you get through it?" And they'd say, "I relied on my faith." That always comes up. I think that's also what happened here. John is very open about that. There was a lot of prayer. 

IGNFF: How do you adapt to the acting challenge of not being able to move for several hours at a time? 

CAGE: It was new. I hadn't experienced that before, and I didn't know what it was really going to be like on the day. But when it happened it was liberating because it helped me go within – which is what I think John had to do anyway, which was: go within to find the strength to survive. In a lot of ways, not worrying about hitting marks or where I'm going to move my hands or legs or dance or anything just enabled me to kind of forget about the camera, and kind of forget about everybody else, and just try to make it feel real. I also remembered the letters from the children at Ground Zero. That was helpful. I went to Ground Zero with John McLoughlin. That was a hard day on John. I looked at the letters from all of the kids, you know, saying they missed Daddy, and I was just trying to figure out some way to metaphorically answer those letters, as odd as that sounds. If we we're doing this from the sense that, years later, if these children looked back, they'd maybe like to know what this experience might have been like in some way. So, let's concentrate and try to make this real. 

IGNFF: So it was a lot of time by yourself on the set. 

CAGE: Yeah, Oliver would say I was a bore to be around. (laughs) Because it was, after a while, I'd just come out of my trailer, go to the set, and climb inside my little hovel – whatever you want to call it – and just meditate on that. I was a bit of a zombie on the set. 

IGNFF: What would you say is the thing that ultimately makes you happy about making this movie? 

CAGE: I think that what would make me happy is that it has, and I think does, provide encouragement. That is the healing aspect of the film, which is why I made the movie. I look at the world we live in right now and there's a lot of pain all around the world. Even at home, there are things that by comparison seem little, like divorces or people you love going into surgery or people with problems with drugs. I think that the movie chose real-life heroes who survived, who overcame incredible adversity, who were normal people. Not extraordinary but who became extraordinary with the way they coped with an extraordinary trauma. I think that it's encouraging, so I'm happy about that. 

IGNFF: How did this movie change the way you look at family and dealing with those kinds of issues? 

CAGE: Well, I'm not perfect. I've made all kinds of mistakes. But I've always believed in the power of family. This didn't change my views dramatically. But it's impossible to meet someone like John, and meditate on the events of that day, and not want to continue to try to help others who are in need. I've found my own ways of trying to do that. My own interest that I advocate. But this just continued to push me a little further down that path. 

IGNFF: World Trade Center is such a 180-degree departure from something like the forthcoming Ghost Rider. We have here two just very different movies from you in the coming months. 

CAGE: Well, with a movie like World Trade Center, these scripts are few and far between. And when something like this comes along, I really want to participate. When they're not here, I will continue to make genre films that are entertaining, because I think that also is satisfying, but it's on a different level.