To put yourself in the headspace of a character like Longlegs can be emotionally exhausting, but Cage took the role as a challenge to play a character that did not look or speak like he did. The actor went into detail about this sentiment in the New Yorker interview, underlining his absolute pleasure in playing “an eclectic range of characters:”
“But to challenge myself and to play characters that don’t look like me and don’t talk like me […] Who can keep changing? That’s one element. The other element is how truthful do I feel that they are in the moment? How real? Are they making me feel something that I can have some compassion for? But I do feel blessed that I’ve had chances to play an eclectic range of characters—and particularly Longlegs, who is nothing like anyone I’ve played before.”
Having said that, Cage also talked about the industry’s tendency to typecast characters after a particularly buzzy role, anticipating offers to play serial killers or roles of a similar variety, and expressed his reluctance to go down that route:
“I know that the phone’s going to be ringing off the hook to play serial killers after ‘Longlegs.’ And that’s not really what I like to do. I don’t like violence. I don’t want to play people who are hurting people.”
That sounds straightforward enough, and this reasoning only makes his Longlegs all the more unique, allowing us a peek into the madness unleashed in the terrifying, hopelessly bleak world of the film.
“Longlegs” is currently playing in theaters.
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