When Adam Sandler rejected his participation, Norwegian director Kristoffer Berger, winner of two awards at the Valladolid Festival in 2022 with Sick of Myself, decided to send the script for Dream Scenario, his third film and his debut in English, to another of his idols, Nicolas Cage. As he explains in this interview, the iconic actor who won the golden statuette for Leaving Las Vegas, found himself in the curious situation of the protagonist, a university professor who appears in people's dreams without any explanation and thus becomes a celebrity. , a reference to his own fame on the networks, more linked to memes and videos on YouTube than to his own work for the screen. The film, which also stars Julianne Nicholson and Dylan Baker, joins other recent works such as Pig, Reinfield and The Unbearable Weight of an Enormous Talent with which the star, who has just turned 60, is enjoying a renaissance. thanks to their commitment to unusual projects.
Did Kristoffer Borgli write the script for Dream scenario with you in mind?
No. He didn't have any actor in mind. In fact, he contacted other actors before offering it to me. But he did want to write something along the lines of Charlie Kaufman and he had loved Adaptation. I feel that the owners of the system, the old guard, have an idea about me that I cannot change. I am very aware that, if I want to continue my career, I have to do it with young people, who grew up watching my films or discovered them on the internet. That's why I have the humility to say, when I meet someone like Kristoffer: “You are half my age and twice my intelligence, and you are clear about what your vision is because this is your baby. Here you have the remote control and these are the controls. “Just push the buttons and I’ll do what you tell me.”
What was it about the script that attracted you to decide to read it?
Title. I love those words and they sound great together, dream, for dream, and scenario, for situation or script. And then when I read it, I found it to be one of the five best scripts I've ever read in my life, and I've been doing this for 42 years. The others are Arizona Baby, Leaving Las Vegas, Vampire Kisses and Adaptation. I knew immediately that I had to make this film. I felt like I had the life experience to play Paul Matthews, even though I don't look like him or talk like him. This character is different from how the audience sees me, due to the viral fame I have acquired. One day, back in 2008 or 2009, I made the mistake of searching for myself on Google, and then I saw this compilation on YouTube, Nicolas Cage loses his cool, where they added up all the moments of crisis that my characters went through, and from that moment on Many people see me as a meme. It was something I couldn't stop or control, nor was there anything I could do about it. It was something that grew and that generated a lot of helplessness in me. But when I read Dream scenario I felt like I could apply that experience to what happens to this character when people dream about him, something he can't control either. In recent times I have been trying to make more personal works, with characters in which I can use my life experience, as was the case with Pig, and the same thing happened with Dream scenario. My intention is to take them full steam ahead and let myself go without having to act too much, so that they look real. For example, in the video where Paul apologizes, I felt like it was my own words. That's how I felt when I saw those creations with my movies on the internet.
What do you feel is the relationship between dreams and movies?
All movies are dreams. They have a dreamlike touch because it is the same as when you go to sleep and suddenly something happens. Last night I had a very strange dream. I dreamed that my babysitter was not my babysitter. She would arrive and start doing spells. I would hide in my bedroom and say, “I think the babysitter is crazy.” I could make a movie about that idea. Movies and dreams are closely linked because they share the same DNA. They are like little blinks in the normal thought process.
Do you feel that dreams have deep meaning?
The fantasy lover in me thinks so, but the scientist in me thinks no. But I like the magic of dreams. I've always had them, since I was little. My father told me that I suffered from nightmares. I learned to take advantage of them because I live dreams as gifts. If I had a recurring dream about a plane crash, when I woke up I said that nightmare helped me have compassion for the people who had gone through that experience or who had not survived. When you dream that something has happened to someone, you worry about that person when you wake up. It has happened to me that on occasions when I didn't know how to interpret a scene, I have gone to sleep and had a dream that later helped me do it, because it gave me a prolonged feeling that was as enigmatic as it was indefinable.
What makes you seek out antiheroes like Paul?
I am guided by instinct. I read a script, I imagine the character and I start to hear music in the dialogues. If I feel like I can interpret it, that music gives me the genuine emotion I need to work. I have to connect with the emotion so that it works with the audience.
Were you inspired by anyone to play Paul Matthews, a great intellectual who doesn't always get along with people?
A little bit about my father, who loved to talk, but wasn't very good at interacting with others. He was excellent at teaching, but he did not stand out socially. I think artists and thinkers tend to stay outside of typical behavior and established social norms. They have a lot on their mind or are thinking about things in a different way. Sometimes they are very accepted by others and on other occasions they can disorient them with their comments.
Furthermore, his father was a literature teacher...
Yeah. He loved his students. He was the kind of teacher who excited about the possibility of stimulating the imagination. But when it comes to competitiveness and cruelty, sport falls short of what exists in academia, where everyone tries to prove that they are smarter than everyone else. That was something that caused him a lot of frustration. But the relationship he had with his students was very touching and stimulating. His students adored him. In that sense, I tried to make Paul a good teacher, someone who would seek connection with his students.
How do you feel that your career as an actor helped you create your character in Dream scenario?
I think every role I've ever done, whether it worked or not, has been an experiment. I am a student, and I have always worked to learn. I'm glad I'm still here. I just turned 60. If I wasn't this age, I wouldn't have been able to make this film. Practice and experience is what has gotten me to a place where I can easily control the emotional content. When the director says “action” and I have to connect with an emotion, I can do it much more easily today than in the past. I take one or two shots and find what I'm looking for. It is something that I have been able to achieve in these last 10 years. It hasn't always been like this. Before I had to do certain exercises and go around in circles until I found them.
In Dream scenario we see a new technology that connects real life with dreams. What do you think about artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence scares me. I'm certainly not interested in leaving this world leaving characters I've played like Frank from The Edge or Randy from Valley Girl at the mercy of a computer to do whatever it wants with them. We need there to be control. If artificial intelligence takes over, the audience will notice the difference. They will want to remember the person who created those characters and hear their voice. Anyway, I'm sure we'll soon find a way to work with it that will give artists peace of mind. I imagine that painters would not want to see that their paintings are appropriated and that it is the computer that decides what the next masterpiece will be.
