Nicolas Cage gives wild performance in movie, ‘Mandy,’ inspired by director

Nicolas Cage in “Mandy.”
RLJE Films

• Nicolas Cage gives one of his most insane performances in
  “Mandy.”
• But it’s the director of the movie, Panos Cosmatos, and
  coping with the passing of his parents, that led to Cage’s wild
  role.

There aren’t many who can top Nicolas Cage in the crazy
department, but the actor met his match with director Panos
Cosmatos.

The filmmaker has built a fan base thanks to his beautifully
demented storytelling, and that’s only with one feature film
under his belt.

2010’s “Beyond the Black Rainbow,” Cosmatos’ feature debut, gave
audiences a twisted and visually stunning sci-fi movie about one
young woman’s journey to escape a weird institute run by an even
weirder doctor. With the beautiful sets and costumes matched with
the trippy music and cinematography, it was evident that Cosmatos
was a new original voice to genre filmmaking.

Eight years later, Cosmatos has finally returned with a new
movie, “Mandy” (opening in theaters on Friday). And though this
one continues his love of strange characters, gorgeous visuals,
and thrilling soundtrack (this time using rock and roll versus
the electronica sound of “Black Rainbow”), it will get a bigger
profile with the casting of Cage as the star of the movie.

“Beyond the Black
Rainbow.”
Magnet
Releasing

Here Cage plays Red Miller, a quiet man who lives in California’s
Shadow Mountains where he cuts down trees with a chainsaw all
day, and every night he comes home to Mandy (Andrea Riseborough),
his true love. However, when a religious cult kills Mandy, Red
goes into a psychotic rage, killing everyone (human and
supernatural) that was involved in her death. That includes
battling bad guys with an axe he built himself and having a
chainsaw duel.

But behind the insanity in both “Beyond the Black Rainbow” and
“Mandy” is a lot of pain. Cosmatos channeled the depression of
losing both of his parents in the last decade into writing the
scripts for the films.

The loss of his father was particularly tough, seeing his
connection to films. George P. Cosmatos died in 2005 and was the
director of such classic Hollywood titles as “Rambo: First Blood
Part II,” “Cobra,” “Leviathan,” and “Tombstone.”

“My love of films comes from him,” Cosmatos said of his father
to Business Insider. “He loved films more than anything. He was
obsessed with them. We watched them together up until the end.”

He said blackout drinking binges with friends was how he dealt
with the loss of his mother, but after his father died he turned
to storytelling, writing “Black Rainbow” and “Mandy”
simultaneously.

“I wasn’t aware of the therapeutic aspect of it at the time, but
it helped me get through in a big way,” Cosmatos said of the
scriptwriting.

“Black Rainbow” got off the ground quicker financially, so it was
made first. When Cosmatos went back to the “Mandy” script, he
realized he couldn’t finish it.

“Me writing ‘Black Rainbow’ was me alone in a windowless room
going insane,” he said. For “Mandy” he needed to be
collaborative.

He brought on his friend, filmmaker Aaron Stewart-Ahn, to finish
the script with him. And Cosmatos also felt that once he cast the
Red Miller part there would also be a collaboration there.

Though it would take years, the money to make “Mandy” finally
came when Cage signed on. Cosmatos said at first the two had an
impasse as Cage wanted to play Red, though he wanted Cage to play
the cult leader Jeremiah. But Cosmatos said it was a dream one
night where he saw Cage as Red that sold him that he needed him
to play the role.

(L-R) Nicolas Cage and
Panos Cosmatos on the set of “Mandy.”
RLJE Films

The two got together and fleshed out the rest of the Red
character. And though some of the most bizarre parts of the movie
seem like classic Cage, in fact, they came from Cosmatos.

The scene when Red goes into the bathroom to take a bottle of
vodka he’s hid away and beings to chug it, pour it all over his
wounds, and scream throughout was all Cosmatos’ idea.

“I always wanted to have a scene that felt like that lost decade
of mine and evokes me drinking with my friends in a desperate
attempt to black out my consciousness,” he said.

And there’s the first line Cage delivers in the movie. He walks
into the house, sees Mandy, and does a knock-knock joke:

Red: Knock-knock.

Mandy: Who’s there?

Red: Erik Estrada.

Mandy: Erik Estrada who?

Red: Erik Estrada from “CHiPs.”

That was not improvised but from the script.

“When he came on the movie I went through the script and rewrote
some of the dialogue,” Cosmatos said, pointing out that the
knock-knock joke was something his friend said that he never
forgot. “Some of the things I just wanted to hear Nicolas Cage
deliver.”

Cosmatos doesn’t know what movie he will do next. In many ways
his first two films have gotten him over the dark times in his
life. But one thing he knows for sure is he won’t be doing
anything for a Hollywood studio. That’s one of his biggest
memories from watching his father work when he was a kid.

“What I learned about the industry was listening to him argue
with people on the phone,” he said. “Battling with producers and
executives for creative freedom. That’s very important to me.”