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Nicolas Cage, who is very much not on the internet, has just appeared online in a very surprising manner. As part of a promotional campaign for the new movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the legendary actor did a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) where he directly answered average folks' questions about his life, career, Hollywood, and bees.

While some celebrities appear to be disengaged during these sessions, disrespectful even, Cage approached the whole thing in a lighthearted, honest way and his thread has instantly become a wholesome delight.

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As one person put it: "I came away with my belief that Cage treats his work and audience with a high degree of respect validated. He half-a**ed nothing ..., gave us sincere and interesting responses, and clearly valued the experience."

So to spread the joy, we at Bored Panda put together the best exchanges. Enjoy.

#1

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PandaGoPanda
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Another trans-Pacific divide. Shirley Crabtree was, and always will be, Big Daddy.

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This occasion feels even more special since you can't simply follow Cage.

"I hate social media," he bluntly told MarketWatch in 2018. "I'm from another time. I'm kicking and screaming. I don't have Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram."

"I wanna maintain whatever golden age, mysterious aura I can keep because I don't want to be a part of that club," he said.

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Zero
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Probably why/how he does so many varied, interesting, & unique roles.

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Ace Girl
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Heck yeah, Spirited Away lives up to it's title, I always feel transported watching that film!

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Dave P
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember seeing this come up when I read the AMA on Sat night and it still is as funny now as it was then

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Cage added that online connection is nothing compared to the one we can have in the natural world. "Everything is a tweet now," he said. "It's disappointing, especially for someone like me. I wanna meet people, I want to have a conversation. I'm not interested in Instagram!"

Regardless, he is one of the more popular personas on the internet. As GQ highlighted, around 2010, when Cage's career and finances started to suffer, his performances—which, while colorful, were at least mostly tuned to the movies they were in—were plucked out of context and spliced together into clips like Nicolas Cage Freak-Out Montage and 40 clips of Nicolas Cage screaming in one minute.

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Cage took umbrage when he first saw all the image edits and supercuts all those years ago, but has more or less accepted them by now.

"You can't go against that which is," he said. But every stick has two ends. The internet lore, as outrageous as it can be, has, in its own way, made him more beloved than before.

His fans even created a subreddit for him, or should we say an altar. It's called r/onetruegod and its members say they "collect all content relating to the Cage, through which we hope to discern His Holy Word."

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We managed to get in touch with the moderators of r/onetruegod, and one of them, u/enfrozt, was kind enough to have a little chat with us.

"I think Nick Cage is so popular [on the internet] because of his breadth of work, and his electric performances when he's doing any part, small or large," u/enfrozt told Bored Panda. "There isn't a year gone by where he hasn't released a movie that intrigues audiences, and many that are just incredibly fun to watch. The AMA felt genuine, and you could tell that each answer would be better than the last."

"Nick Cage is a master of his craft, but he's also a humble film enthusiast himself. He cares very much about the audience's enjoyment and experience of the movie," the mod continued, adding a quote by another Redditor, u/cyllibi: 'It shouldn't have surprised me, but I was really impressed about his depth of knowledge into his craft. This man respects acting in a way I don't think most performers do.'

#13

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Scagsy
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And number 2 has to be one of the most interesting answers I have heard to a fairly straightforward question. Something of an insight into the mind of Mr. Cage.

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GQ called Cage "a true eccentric holdout in the increasingly banal landscape of American celebrity." And they make a good point. He's not posting ridiculous TikToks or giving pithy sound bites on a red carpet.

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u/enfrozt also agrees with this statement. "I think this is very on point for describing Nick Cage," they said. "He isn't a celebrity that you would consider to be apathetic with where he's gotten in life. You can tell with each new movie that he's committed to crafting a performance that is the best he can, and it doesn't seem like he's slowing down any time soon.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the movie to which we are thankful for this AMA, premiered at the South by Southwest film festival last month and hits theaters worldwide at the end of April. However, when Cage first heard the premise of the movie, he was vaguely offended.

In writer-director Tom Gormican's comedy, a fictionalized, egocentric, down-on-his-luck version of him accepts a $1 million offer from a wealthy mega-fan (Pedro Pascal) to attend a party in Spain and finds himself in a real-life action-adventure and tumbling down a rabbit hole of references to his past roles.

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"I turned it down three or four times," Cage told The Hollywood Reporter.

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mr. Cage said in an interview: First time Travolta showed up to the shooting was the scene where Cage goes absolutely bonkers as the terrorist disguised as a priest. After he saw that he said something like "Oh, so this kind of acting I have to deal with."

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"I wanted no part of it," the actor continued. "But when I got Tom's letter, then I thought, 'OK, he's not just trying to mock so-called Nick Cage; there is a real interest in some of the earlier work.' His tone was more of a celebration of some of [the actor's iconic onscreen] moments — like being at the bottom of the pool in Leaving Las Vegas or [using] the gold guns in Face/Off."

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Scagsy
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

An awesome movie. Cage rightly received an Oscar for his performance but I also think that Elisabeth Shue deserved Best Actress. Don't get me wrong, Susan Sarandon was amazing in Dead Man Walking but I felt that Shue's version of a Las Vegas prostitute was a tour de force. She brought glamour and despair in equal measure and made the part her own. In any other year, she would probably have walked away with it.

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love this answer! That modesty makes him even more great and adorable.

Ironically, what really hooked Cage was a part that is no longer in the movie. "It was a sequence where the Nick Cage character goes into a series of vignettes that are all stylized in the German expressionism of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. So there was a sequence in black and white that was a Gone in 60 Seconds race in a Mustang, there was the Leaving Las Vegas character in a hotel room. It was fun to make and cool to look at," the actor said.

"Ultimately, the studio decided it was too far out for audiences."

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Evelyn Ann
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dubrovnik is my dream vacation place. I've never been abroad and it looks like one of the most beautiful places on earth

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Andrea Josipović
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Too crowded during the summer season. And i mean CROWDED! You can barely see anything.

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So far, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is getting good press. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 28 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. Rafael Motamayor, for example, wrote in Polygon, "The Nick Cage meta-movie hits all the right buttons, in ways no one would suspect going in."

"I think I can speak for all of the moderators here, and community members in showing my appreciation to Nick Cage for doing this AMA. If ever there was a 'Cage' movie to come out and see, it would be Nicolas Cage playing 'Nick Cage' ... I'm definitely going to check out The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, hope y'all check it out as well," u/enfrozt concluded.

Let's hope this AMA will help it sell as many tickets as it can. Sounds like both the movie and Nick deserve it.

#30

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Leah Rhoufiry
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think people have forgotten how good he is at humor, Raising Arizona is one of my favorite films.

Note: this post originally had 32 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

People loved everything about Cage's AMA and couldn't get enough of it

It even generated more comments than Barack Obama's, and the actor was very grateful for the experience