Very nice to have you here.
Thanks for being here.
Wow. This is my first time on your show.
Yeah, yeah. This is ah very exciting.
Well this is exciting for us too, you know.
We were, a bunch of us, we're big fans
and we were talking about your movie career,
you know, today.
And all the different roles you've played
and then I said, for my money, my favorite performance
of yours it's hard to pick one,
is when "Peggy Sue Got Married."
Oh
Because you played, ah is it Charlie, Charlie Bodell,
I think.
That's right.
And you took this acting choice in that movie
that I believe it was a very brave acting choice.
You went for this voice in that character.
And when I first saw that movie I thought "this was gutsy"
'cause you've choose this voice.
It could of maybe ended things for you right there
and instead it was hilarious and great.
Well, thank you.
What was the inspiration for that?
(audience clapping)
Well ah, I almost got fired for that one.
You almost got fired? Seriously?
Oh yeah, I almost did.
And I remember that my uncle had a talk the studio down
and say "this is what he's doing."
Right
It's okay, but I never worked with him again
after that. But that's what happened.
Right
I chose the voice of- I was a fan of the "Gumby" show
when I was a child.
The "Gumby" show a famous show.
And "Pokey" was the claymation horse.
Right
on the show
There's Gumby. We always keep a Gumby and Pokey
photo in case anyone happens to reference it.
Well, that's a good picture of them.
Yeah
They look good together. (Conan laughing)
His voice sounded like
it was a little bit accelerated.
Right He would say things like
"Next time Gumby use your own go cart."
(Conan and audience laughing)
I just love that sound of that voice.
Sure, yeah yeah.
But the scary thing is that I find
that I use it more and more with every year
that I get older when I get tired.
You didn't just use it for the role
in "Peggy Sue Got Married" you're now using it
in your actual life.
Now it's actually happening to me when I least expect it.
Like when I'm very tired,
so for example I was making a movie in Thailand.
I was working three days in a row.
Hm-mm
And my stunt man was there and we were working
on some sort of karate move.
And I said "Hey Dave"
(audience laughing)
"What about that Jujitsu, are we gonna go there?"
And of course everybody was terrified.
(audience laughing)
I try to do it so that I don't get um, like I don't,
I try to always have a good attitude.
I don't like to lose my temper
Sure
Or raise my voice.
But sometimes in the morning when I am a little bit cranky,
and tired it's like
"Hi Alice, you know I don't know what coffee
to make this morning, I really don't know."
It's almost like you can be that other person,
You know and take a break.
I understand it.
Well yeah, it's sort of a release.
Yeah, yeah. Well it's so hilarious the movie.
This is just for real movie buffs.
The scene we are actually eating Rice Krispie's Treats.
We were going like "ah ah ah"
Oh yeah.
I remember seeing it in the theaters
and just dying laughing it was so funny.
Trying not to throw up.
(Conan laughing)
No knock to Rice Krispie's treats, they're fantastic.
Oh yeah.
(audience cheering)
I do like those.
Yeah. They're very good.
They may be a sponsor.
I'll find out later.
They're fantastic with the marshmallows
and they're crispy, they're so crunchy.
(Conan laughing) Now you have gone too far.
(audience laughing)
You know it's funny also you,
I think, have covered more ground than most movie actors.
Drama, comedy, action
and I'm curious it seems like you are able
to shape shift more than most actors.
That's a compliment.
But who's the real Nick Cage?
Well thank you.
It's interesting that you mentioned that.
Have you followed that Chinese animality,
like this is the year of the pig.
Ah-mm
I once thought that I was born in the year of the dragon,
because it was '64, but then I found out that the
Chinese New Year actually begins
in February so I was born in the year of the bunny.
Hm-mm
And I had this incredible identity crisis
that I was no longer a dragon.
I was a bunny.
After I had a dragon tattoo on my back.
And I had a dragon fireplace-
Wait a minute, you thought you were born
in the year of the dragon,
so you have a dragon tattooed on your back?
I went for it. I was yeah I'm going to embrace this,
this is a really cool sign to have.
Sure, yeah.
And then they said no, you're a bunny.
(audience laughing)
(Conan laughing)
That was a very sad period in my life.
I didn't know who I was anymore.
Sure. I didn't leave the house.
Could you add ears to the dragon?
I tried to think of that, some sort of concoction
between the too.
Right
But then my mother-in-law is Korean and she said
to me this year in fact you are born
in the year of the dragon.
Because in Korea we celebrate January is the beginning
of the New Year and also in Japan.
So now I'm back and feeling very good about my new scales
on my back and I'm accepting my dragon-hood once again.
So you're use to having sort
of a shattered personality almost?
Right. So maybe that went into the acting.
I think so.
Sometimes you're dragon, sometimes you're a bunny.
Yeah
(audience laughing)
I'll be taken out of context.
Obviously you were interested in being
in an actor in a early age.
Was there a time when you realized,
when you were very young,
"Okay acting. This is something that I have facility for"?
Well, there is a memory of mine that comes back to my now.
Where I was on a bus, I was in fourth grade.
And I was picked on by the bullies on the bus.
'Cause my mother use to pack a Twinkie in my lunch sack.
And they always wanted to take it.
And I didn't want them to steal the Twinkie anymore
Right.
So, I remember one day for some reason I put on my older
brother's cowboy boots and I put these sunglasses on
and I dressed in these tight jeans
and I had all this swagger and attitude.
And I went on the bus
and I said that I was "Roy Wilkinson.
I was Nicki's cousin and I'm gonna beat you up
if you pick on him anymore.
And they stopped picking on me.
So I thought that was like my first time
that I could actually play a part.
I don't know if they really believed it.
But it was just enough-
They might of been afraid of you a little bit.
(audience laughing)
It was a weird thing for me to do,
but yeah it might of been my first acting experience.
And then there was another bully named Jonathon Foster.
Jonathon Foster, well I guess he could call
in at some point now that I've mentioned his name.
He's probably in prison now.
He was yeah, he would go around the neighborhood
on his Schwinn bike and he would torment my brothers.
There I was, I was seven years old and I would pretend
that I was the Incredible Hulk and I ripped my shirt off
and my jeans and would scream at them.
And he ran away on the bike and he never came back.
(Conan and audience laughing)
So that was another, I was another little weird actor.
You literally acted like the Hulk.
Yeah I went "Ahhhh-yah" and then he disappeared.
Yeah (Conan laughing)
(audience laughing)
Again he was very afraid.
I heard you did a Hulk thing.
Years ago, we had me transformed into the Hulk.
The main joke was that I turn green but still had
the same sunken chest as Conan O' Brien.
(audience laughing)
Well that's hilarious.
Thanks a lot.
Who I really love is Cloppy the horse.
Oh yeah we have a horse on the show, Cloppy,
who always becomes suicidal, yeah.
That's hilarious.
(Nick and audience laughing)
We'll have to bring him out here for ya.
Next time you come, we'll bring out Cloppy.
That will be good.
Now let's talk about (Conan laughing)
(audience laughing)
I love Cloppy.
I always hear a different thing from people.
But I haven't heard Cloppy in awhile.
Well Pokey and Cloppy could be friends
Pokey, Cloppy, I see, I see what you're into.
(audience laughing)
Let me ask you about "Ghost Rider", this is the new film
and it's interesting because this is your first,
you've made so many films,
this is the first time you get to play a super hero.
Yeah.
Which, I think is a little ironic because you were a,
I understand, a huge fan of comic books.
So, I would think it would be your life time dream
to play a superhero.
Yeah. At one time I was gonna play Superman.
Hm-mm.
And that was with Tim Burton.
But I think we had choices that might of not been
too comfortable for the studio.
The Gumby voice again.
Well maybe that, something else.
(Conan and audience laughing)
"I love you Lois."
(Nick and audience laughing)
"Goodnight Lois."
(Conan, Nick and audience laughing)
But this was the right choice for me, Ghost Rider,
he's so cool, because well he's not in tights,
he doesn't wear a cape.
He's got a flaming skull for a head. He's in black leather.
Flaming skull is hard to beat, yeah.
It's hard to top.
And also he has this great superpower.
He has the penance stare.
And that's where he looks at you
and turns everything you ever did wrong, back on you.
He's like karma personified.
It's pretty cool stuff for a superhero.
He brings up your sort of worst nightmares from your past.
Everything you ever did wrong,
he turns it right back at you.
Right, if that's not bad enough
then he can beat you with a bicycle chain.
Well, he has that chain.
And he can throw fire at you.
Yeah, yeah.
So it must of been fun to be this character?
It was. Because that character, when I was a boy,
I loved him because I couldn't understand
how something scary could also be so good.
Right
And it was like Faust and Evel Knievel
and Beauty and the Beast and a western and a biker movie
and like a horror film, like a great big werewolf movie,
all thrown into one.
And those are all things I found fun.
Right.
Very cool having you on the show.
Thanks for doing it.
Thank you.
Very nice to have ya, Nicholas Cage.
(audience cheering)