Nicolas Cage Shares 1 Thing He's 'Terrified' Will Happen After He Dies
Nicolas Cage is worried that Hollywood will âstealâ his face and body once heâs dead.
The âFace/Offâ star admitted as much in an interview Monday with The New Yorker and, while heâs primarily concerned about Hollywoodâs burgeoning use of artificial intelligence, Cage has also been used for viral internet memes since 2009 â and he still isnât used to it.
The topic came up mid-interview when Cage noted he has to get a âscanâ or two done.
âWell, they have to put me in a computer and match my eye color and change â I donât know,â he told the outlet. âTheyâre just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital A.I. ... God, I hope not A.I. Iâm terrified of that. Iâve been very vocal about it.â
Cage has starred in 120 films and has portrayed virtually every archetype there is, from reluctant hero and heartthrob to villainous vampire. The actor, whoâs played a resourceful thief â and has seen his face stolen on-screen before â is now worried about life imitating art.
âAnd it makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artists end up?â Cage said Monday. âIs it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Whereâs the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when Iâm dead?â
âI donât want you to do anything with it!â the actor continued.
Cage isnât the only star alarmed by the artificial use of his likeness, which became a core subject of last yearâs SAG-AFTRA negotiations with major film studios. Samuel L. Jackson previously urged actors to reject contracts containing the words âin perpetuity.â
Cage is already familiar with his face being warped and wielded, however, as itâs been a template for viral memes for 15 years now. A montage of his most manic scenes has drawn 1 million views, meanwhile, and a forum on Reddit created in his honor boasts 153,000 users.
The actor said Monday that people âbecome fascinated with movie starsâ but essentially meme them to death âso fastâ that itâs âalmost become a jokeâ â only to âdispose of them and go to the next guy.â Cage himself is still navigating just how best âto surf thatâ wave.
âI used to be in control of that. I donât think Iâm in control of that anymore,â he told The New Yorker, adding: âWhen I signed up to be a film actor, we didnât have the Internet. We didnât have cell phones with cameras. I didnât know this was going to happen to me.â