When Nicolas Cage completely lost touch with reality during the filming of Volte-Face

“At one point I lost myself: Who am I? Where am I? Is this all real?”

He played Beaver Troy. Or rather Sean Archer who played Castor Troy…

Nicolas Cage says he pushed his art a little too far in Flip/Facethe John Woo film released in 1997. To the point of getting lost in the twists and turns of the characters…

Invited to New York Comic Con a few days ago (via Entertainment Weekly), he talked about how the craziness of the script ended up driving him a little crazy. For the record, in this action thriller, Cage plays Castor Troy, a crazy criminal arrested by the police. To make his brother talk in prison, Sean Archer, an FBI agent played by John Travolta, takes on the face of Castor Troy thanks to an experimental surgical operation. Sean Archer thus slips into the skin of the killer. And Nicolas Cage had to play Castor Troy, but also Sean Archer imprisoned in the guise of his enemy, with all the psychological issues that implies. The actor remembers this performance as a real balancing act:

“It’s a completely crazy interpretation, because I play Castor Troy. Well, no. I play Archer who plays Troy, in prison, while everyone thinks I’m Castor Troy, but I’m actually Archer…. And to for a moment, while I was repeating to myself: ‘I am Castor Troy, I am Castor Troy!’, I got lost…”

Nicolas Cage explains that he broke down somewhat by no longer really knowing who he was;

“I asked myself: ‘Who am I? Where am I? Is this all real? Am I in danger? Am I really in prison? Is this really happening to me?’ I lost touch with reality!“

An intense experience, but which did not prevent the film from becoming one of the most memorable titles of the actor’s career. About-Face notably earned Cage and Travolta an MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo. Nearly thirty years later, the film remains a reference in action cinema of the 1990s and a sequel is even in preparation. Fortunately, Nicolas Cage believes he has learned to better master this type of immersion since:

“Fortunately, that doesn’t happen to me anymore. It was early in my acting career. I think I learned to control all of that as I further developed my craft..”