Interview: We nerd out about the greatness of Nicolas Cage with Mandy director Panos Cosmatos

Mandy is a movie that sears itself into your brain.

Vancouver-based filmmaker Panos Cosmatos’ follow-up to 2010’s head trip Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy is a movie that envelops your senses, an operatic, psychedelic fever-dream that also features one of Nicolas Cage’s strongest performances in years.

Set in 1983, Cage plays Red, who lives alongside his girlfriend Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) out in the mountainous wilderness of California. Mandy eventually catches the eye of Jeremiah (Linus Roache), a Manson-like folk singer / cult leader who becomes infatuated with her. Through some otherworldly means, Jeremiah summons a gang of beastly bikers to kidnap the couple. Left for dead following a violent confrontation with the group, Red then embarks on a revenge mission to track down and kill Jeremiah and his followers, who get taken out in increasingly gory (and ultimately satisfying) ways.

Cosmatos takes what is at heart a tragic love story, and manages to create one of the most blindingly original films in years, a fantasy revenge tale that truly feels like a descent into hell. Using a stunning colour palette and a number of unexpected visual cues (including a prolonged animated sequence), Cosmatos plays with our sense of space, time and reality, leaving viewers in a battered and bewildered state of consciousness not unlike Cage’s character.

As disorienting as the first half of the film is, the second half is where Cage really gets to shine, as he begins to exact revenge on Jeremiah and his crew. This is full-on Cage Rage, the sort of unhinged Cage performance we haven’t really seen since 1988’s cult classic Vampire’s Kiss (The Wicker Man came close though).

Mandy won’t be for everyone, but those looking for a singular cinematic experience will be hard pressed to find anything else as jaw-dropping at your local theatre anytime soon. We caught up with Cosmatos at the Fantasia International Film Festival to discuss his fanboy reaction to working with Cage, why he almost abandoned the film, and what critics get wrong about Cage’s acting.

Mandy is in theatres and VOD on September 14th.

Bad Feeling Mag: It’s been eight years between films for you – what was the process of getting Mandy to the screen like?

Panos Cosmatos: I started writing it at the same time as my first movie (Beyond the Black Rainbow ) and then finished it after I shot my first movie. So, even there, it’s still years. It’s because I decided that I didn’t want to get myself in a situation where I was stuck with producers that didn’t understand what I was doing, or [wouldn’t] want to protect it, and would make my next film a living hell, which happens with alarming frequency.

So of all the companies I talked to, SpectreVision understood what I was doing, and wanted to nurture it and protect it, at all costs. And a lot of people say that and they’re just full of shit, but I felt like they were sincere, and they were, it turns out, as their actions followed up. They nurtured and protected this film from day one to the very end. And that’s why it took a long time, because it was just a matter of trying to find all the right pieces to fit into place to get money to make it, and primarily a movie star or two! [Laughs]

How did Nicolas Cage come onboard?

We had been sort of making lists and talking to people for quite a while, and originally Red’s character was a bit younger. And Elijah [Wood] did a movie with Nicolas Cage called The Trust, so they founded a relationship there, and Cage had expressed interest in doing some more interesting work, with like, newer filmmakers. And they said, “Well, we’re fucking here for you,” you know? And I think I had put him on my list for the villain, Jeremiah, and through word-of-mouth it came to us that he was interested in playing the villain. So I went and met with him, and basically the first thing he said to me was, “I don’t want to play the villain, I want to play Red Miller.” That came as a bit of a shock to me, and I was disappointed and heartbroken, and went through a period where we walked away.

And after a few weeks I realized, you know, he could work as Red Miller. It’s a very simple character, and somebody with his kind of incredible creativity and range could make the character something really dynamic, more special than it is on the page. As soon as I sort of wrapped my head around that, I became re-excited about working with him in this slightly different context, and now I can’t imagine anybody else playing that role, ever.

Did you have certain Cage films you looked to as touchstones for his role, performance-wise?

Oh, you mean just me gushing about what I love about him? [Laughs] I told him a lot about how much I loved his performance in Vampire’s Kiss, and he generously acted out some parts from it. It was pure glory. He was telling me his inspirations for the character, it was fun. But working with him was amazing, he’s an extremely creative and open-minded guy. I think some movie stars are very protective of their sort of brand or image, or other such distasteful words, and he’s not afraid of any of that. He was able to completely absorb himself in this character. It was a collaborative process, I think he understood the world enough that I felt comfortable taking in some of his ideas and incorporating them into the film.

He has to get to some very intense places in this movie, how did that process work? Was that all from the script, or did you discuss the type of emotions you wanted him to tap into?

I can’t tell an actor what to tap into, they have their things they tap into. But I think it’s important to know what the scene is about on the most basic level. What are we saying in this scene? And there’s a lot of very operatic, intense emotions in this film, that I didn’t want to seem like camp or pastiche, I wanted people to feel it, you know?

The film has been getting rapturous reviews, were you surprised by the initial reaction?

It’s a miracle! [Laughs] Yes, I was surprised. I thought it would be the same thing as my first film, which I would describe the reviews as … a handful of very positive ones, but a lot of kind of, pseudo-positive, half-assed kind of semi-praise. But with Black Rainbow, it’s not like I was expecting praise. I wasn’t expecting anything. I almost didn’t even release it, ’cause I kind of liked the idea of, since I owned it, of just sticking it in a vault and letting it just be discovered after like 40 years, after I was dead. [Laughs]

Did you feel protective over it?

No, I just thought, how often do you have the ability to do that? Never. So, I thought of the idea, but then I was like, well, if I ever want to actually make another movie, then I have to have something to show people. That probably would help me. [Laughs] I feel like it’s finding its audience now. All twelve of them.

Your initial passion was for cult films, do they still inspire you the same way?

Yeah, watching these sort of stranger films is, I don’t know, it’s like finding strange artifacts and strange documents of people’s lives almost. And if they’re really low-budget and lit with a flood lamp, it just feels almost like you’re looking into this portal to another time.

Were there any of those low-budget movies that have stuck with you over the years?

Yeah, one of them is [1982’s] Night Beast, it’s the movie that they’re watching on TV [in Mandy] by Don Dohler. That film I saw quite young, and Don Dohler is a genius in my opinion. He was given a few hundred thousand dollars by like some local network in Middle America to make three or four low-budget science fiction horror movies that they could show at night [laughs]. I don’t know what they were expecting, but they got magic.

Most successful television and films are primarily narrative-driven today, but your films stray away from that and get into almost trance-like states — is that a form of counter-programming? Are you more interested in visual storytelling than traditional narratives? 

In making things, I feel that I want a story to be incredibly simple, so that around that you can grow more interesting things, like environments and the neuroses and fears of these creatures that inhabit these worlds. And I think I’m trying to sort of render the intangible feeling of when you’re a child watching a film without any filters, and everything is terrifying and everything is beautiful. Every colour is amazing and every image burns itself into your mind forever. I think these two films have been an attempt to kind of create that feeling, you know?

Do you feel like there’s something critics under-appreciate about some of Cage’s performances?

Before working with him and after working with him, I feel there can be a bit of a condensation towards him, because he’s a maverick, you know? And he’s hyper-aware of what he’s doing, and I just think, even though he’s appreciated in a certain way more now, I feel like it’ll be another 30 years before he’s fully, fully appreciated. Or maybe now, hopefully, I hope this movie helps that.

Mandy is in theatres and VOD on September 14th.