Nicolas Cage, star of so many, many memes, is still surprised to learn about “Caging”

The internet’s love of Nicolas Cage memes is profound enough that even a famous actor who spends his days talking to his pet crow, hanging out with king cobras, and eating mushrooms with his cat can’t avoid them. They are everywhere. The memes are, for better or (more likely) worse, as much a reason for Cage’s current level of fame as his acting.

And yet, despite this kind of saturation, Cage can still be surprised by the extent to which people gain joy from making jokes based on him, as was the case when he was introduced to the practice of putting up photos of the actor on other people’s stuff to surprise them: A prank called “Caging.”

During an interview with Variety to promote The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, a movie where Nic Cage plays a fictionalized “Nick Cage” that makes even the man himself uncomfortable, castmate Lily Mo Sheen explains that she used to practice Caging in middle school. Sheen would tape up photos of Cage on lockers, which she clarifies she did out of admiration for the actor (excuse us: thespian). When director Tom Gormican asks what it would be like “to Cage Cage,” Sheen says it would “be an honor.”

Cage is then asked if he’s ever heard of Caging and he responds with a bewildered “no.”

“You do understand this is enormously surreal for me,” he adds.

Pedro Pascal then tells Cage that Austin has been experiencing a bout of Caging during SXSW, to which the latter wonders if the practice “is a real thing.” The interviewer confirms that it used to happen at her school, too. Once he’s accepted that Caging is indeed a verifiable phenomenon, Cage says: “This is new for me. And it’s happening on television on a couch in a room with my colleagues and friends.”

He’s asked how he feels about it and responds that he’ll “have to look into it” but that, without further information, “it’s trippy. Fun, but trippy.”

That said, not understanding exactly why people are plastering his face all over, Cage tells the interviewer that he did call the guy who’s been Caging the city of Austin with a request for Cage to call him, explaining that the person responsible was “very nice” and just wanted to talk about movies. “He wasn’t a freak,” he adds. “He was very civilized and cool.”

We wonder if Cage would say the same if he got a chance to talk to one of the people responsible for other memes based on him, like, say, deepfaking his mug into every possible movie.

[via Digg]

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