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‘I didn’t get into movies to become a meme’: Nicolas Cage on dreams, fame and his two-headed snake
The actor who spawned a thousand internet mashups talks turning to his subconscious for help, his very public mistakes and the greatest piece of direction he has ever received
![Nicolas Cage.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/955d8f6b00db9996d1a4dd00b78c80cb5ad300ed/13_494_3494_2095/master/3494.jpg?width=480&dpr=1&s=none)
‘I’ve been trying to get myself to a purer place of expression’ … Nicolas Cage. Photograph: Jay L Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Contour RA
When people tell Nicolas Cage that he has appeared in their dreams, he gets a little jumpy. “I’m like: ‘Well, I hope I behaved,’” he says in his unmistakably emphatic drawl.
“You wanna make sure you didn’t do something horrific.” Dreams are on his mind today because of his new film, the Ari Aster-produced black comedy Dream Scenario, which he has phoned from Perth, Australia, to discuss.
It is early evening there, and the 59-year-old actor is in a rented beach-front house with his fifth wife, Riko Shibata, and their one-year-old daughter, August, named after Cage’s late father. “It’s lovely,” he sighs contentedly as August wails in the background. “I have a nice view of the waves and I’m enjoying watching the outstanding surfers here. It’s really a dance. A ballet.”