Why Nicolas Cage is one of the most fascinating actors working today

17th June 2022

Keith Phipps is a writer who has worked for the AV Club and the Dissolve. He specializes mainly in pop culture, making him a natural fit for the show. Keith just wrote his first book. It’s called Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career. The subject of the book is the one and only Nicolas Cage. Cage is arguably one of the most enigmatic actors in recent memory. In his over forty years of acting, Cage has performed in unforgettable classics, arthouse indies, blockbuster action movies, direct-to-video horror and everything, literally every possible thing, in between. Keith Phipps joins the show to talk about his new book and how doing research for it has changed his opinion about Nicolas Cage. He also breaks down some of his favorite Nick Cage roles and shares how he makes sense of the actor’s resurgent career now.

Episode notes

(Photo: Henry Holt and Co. Publishers)

Keith Phipps on his new book and Nicolas Cage’s career

Keith Phipps is a writer who has worked for the AV Club and the Dissolve. He specializes mainly in pop culture, making him a natural fit for the show. 

Keith just wrote his first book. It’s called Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career. The subject of the book is, the one and only Nicolas Cage.  

Nicolas Cage is arguably one of the most enigmatic actors in recent memory. In his over forty years of acting, Cage has performed in unforgettable classics, arthouse indies, blockbuster action movies, direct-to-video horror and everything, literally every possible thing, in between. 

To the subscribers on reddit that call him the “One True God,” he is a human meme that is perfect for freak-out compilation videos on YouTube and cringey tribute art. To his critics, he is an eccentric goof chasing his past glory. To his fans, he is simply an actor who loves to work, and never fails to give his all, no matter how small or weird the part. It is not a career that fits neatly into any one box, and it is not a life story you can tell with a simple biography.

So Keith Phipps did not write a simple biography. Instead, he wrote Age of Cage, a book that looks at Cage’s career as a tale about the film industry at large. It is a saga of a risk taking actor finding work in an environment less and less prone to risks.

Keith Phipps joins the show to talk about his new book and how doing research for it has changed his opinion about Nicolas Cage. He also breaks down some of his favorite Nick Cage roles and shares how he makes sense of the actor’s resurgent career now.

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow
Video Editor

Guests

  • Keith Phipps

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

If you would like to pitch a guest for Bullseye, please CLICK HERE. You can also follow Bullseye on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. For more about Bullseye and to see a list of stations that carry it, please click here.

Get in touch with the show

People

Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Video Editor

How to listen

Stream or download episodes directly from our website, or listen via your favorite podcatcher!

Share this show

New? Start here...

Liked Why Nicolas Cage is one of the most fascinating actors working today? Listen to these next...