Nicolas Cage has won the Oscar for his brilliance and been spoofed on "Saturday Night Live"for his flamboyance.
But he has a clear idea about his acting style.
"I don't believe in the term 'over the top,' " Cage tells "CBS Sunday Morning." "I believe in the term 'outside of the box.' Let's take chances, let's keep trying new things, and that's how you reinvent yourself. And that's how you stay fresh."
Cage's interview with Lee Cowan airs at 9 a.m. Sunday on WKMG-Channel 6.
Cage won the Oscar for "Leaving Las Vegas," was nominated for "Adaptation" and won great reviews for "Raising Arizona" and "Moonstruck." Other credits include "Con Air," "Face/Off," "National Treasure," "Ghost Rider" and "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call -- New Orleans."
The actor's hair has been pretty dynamic, too, and versatile.
Cage explains his memorable approach to films. "I will promise you if I can give you two good scenes, which is what I always try to do in every movie, then I feel like I've done my job," the actor says.About those film outbursts called "Cage-isms"?
"It is music," Cage tells Cowan. "I think all of this, if you listen to different kinds of music, you have moments that are explosive, and you have quieter moments."
He goes a quiet route in the new film "Joe" and cites James Dean in "East of Eden" as a life-changing influence.
"You see Dean go through this extraordinary nervous breakdown," Cage says. "I was in the theater, I was, I was a wreck. Nothing affected me that deeply. I knew then the power of a film performance, what you could do, what you could achieve with film performance, and that's when I said, 'This is what I'm going to do.' "
Nobody does it quite like him.
