Nic Cage on his Flash cameo: “Glad I didn’t blink”
Cage finally got to appear as a live-action Superman—complete with giant spider—in Andy Muschietti's Flash
Aux News Flash
Although there was plenty of conversation, about a variety of topics adjacent to it, before Andy Muschetti’s Flash movie hit theaters—Ezra Miller, the death of the “Snyderverse,” Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, all the stuff that happened with Ezra Miller over the last couple of years—the conversation after the movie debuted tended to zero in on one very distracting portion: The cameos.
If you’ve seen the film (or just the hubbub around it online) you know what we’re talking about: The moment, late in the film, when Barry Allen ventures out into the multiverse, which, as it turns out, is full of other Warner Bros.-owned superhero projects. The most distracting moment of the sequence, by far, was the one featuring the late Christopher Reeve, teamed up (in not wholly convincing CGI form) with Helen Slater’s Supergirl to stare at a big space hole for several seconds. But almost as odd was a different superhero “What might have been?”: A quick homage to Nicolas Cage’s never-made Superman Lives, with a Con-Air-haired Cage appearing as Kal-El, fighting that giant spider that Kevin Smith is always talking about when he discusses his aborted time on the movie.
And while Reeve, obviously, can’t comment on his inclusion in the film, Cage can. And, honestly, he sounds pretty okay with it, which is something of a relief. “Well, I was glad I didn’t blink,” he told USA Today in a recent interview, pegged to his new film Sympathy For The Devil. “For me, it was the feeling of being actualized. Even that look for that particular character, finally seeing it on screen, was satisfying. But as I said, it’s quick.” Cage went on to add that, “If you really wanted to know what I was going do with that character, look at my performance in City Of Angels.” The actor explained that he was already trying to get into the Clark Kent mindset while filming the 1998 supernatural drama, and that the “alien otherness” he exhibited as an angel would have been a big part of his Kal-El.
Although Superman Lives famously didn’t, Flash isn’t the first time Cage has actually gotten to play the part: He voiced Superman in 2018's (very funny) Teen Titans Go To The Movies. Meanwhile, Smith made his own comments about the Flash scene, admitting to Rolling Stone that “Goddammit, [the giant spider] would have worked.”
20 Comments
Spoilers, dude! Some of us are waiting for it to premiere on broadcast television!
I’d say that’s actually the articles fault for not turning you around at the door with a spoiler warning. This should have had a spoiler warning on it, ugh.
I was actually waiting to watch this on Max, since I have to justify paying for it anyway. The AVC has become so spoilery!
I predict the Spanish dub on basic cable will be superior.
“Dios Mio! Es Michael Keaton!”
I actually loved City of Angels even though it was utter schlock and Ryan was terrible in it. But it does have a great performance by Dennis Franz. I can’t imagine the characterization of Seth in any way contributing to a rendering of Kal-El. But you do you, Nic. Or whomever.
My only problem with the Nic Cage cameo is that it felt like it went on for a few seconds too long.
I didn’t know that the multiverse was actually a kaleidoscope of weird coolness!
It’s like a cosmic gumbo.
live-actionuh i think your definition of “live-action” is different from mine.
Live action like 2019’s The Lion King was live action.
So all the delays and reshoots were about inserting fan-service cameos because they knew they had a losing horse? There’s an unusual amount of cameos here. Imagine if 1/10th of that effort and budget went to re-doing Batgirl’s issues instead of shelving it. WB instead doubled-down on an abuser and criminal instead.
He looked good. After the various photos of the costume tests I was very surprised.
It was good to have heard Smith’s story on his episode of How Did This Get Made about a month before I saw the Flash movie. I was honestly pumped during that bit. Good for Nic.
Honestly they wouldn’t want to hear from Reeves. The man was a fucking saint and he was always protective of his image of Superman. He wouldn’t have wanted to be CGI’d into the death rattle of the Snyderverse.Of all the cameos. It was the one that pissed me off the absolute most.
While I think you’re right about Christopher Reeve’s reaction, George Reeves’ cameo was much, much worse IMO.
They should have just had Ben Affleck playing George Reeves. He was hanging around anyway.
True in a lot of ways but I think the Christopher Reeves bugged me more personally because he was the Superman I grew up with.
I think with the character off the movie screen for so long people forget that for certain generations Reeve is Superman – not an actor who played him.
I’ve seen it but, where’s the spoiler warning on this article…?