With Longlegs finally here, it’s worthwhile to note that Nicolas Cage’s fictional serial killer actually had elements inspired from the actor’s real-life mother.
This is where the rubber meets the road, and audiences will finally be able to decide whether all the creepy trailers and horrifying phone numbers were truly worth the hype, as Longlegs is now playing in theaters.
But for as much as the Longlegs reviews and creative tie-ins have made audiences desperate to see the new 2024 horror movie, that’s been nothing compared to the ongoing mystery of Nicolas Cage’s satanic serial killer.
The marketing didn’t give much away when it came to Cage’s psycho. In the brief glimpses fans were able to see, it was clear that he appeared just as odd as he sounded. A pale white face formed his signature look, and it turns out that this particular element came from a childhood memory of his mother that he never forgot.
“My mom put on Noxzema cold cream. I was 2 years old, and I opened the bathroom door [to see] what she was doing,” Cage told Entertainment Weekly. “For no reason, she turned her face really fast and stared at me after [putting on] the cold cream. The whiteness of the cold cream just really spooked me.”
It’s a vivid memory for Cage, which was clearly turned into a creepy detail for the horror movie. But it also goes beyond a simple aesthetic decision, as Cage explained how his character obsesses over the color.
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“He has a strange connection to the color white,” he said. “I don’t really know what it is. He says it’s just a force he’s aware of. You don’t question it too much. He knows it when he sees it.”
Cage continued to use the influence of his mother – Joy Vogelsang, who struggled with schizophrenia and depression during his childhood – in other ways for his Longlegs character.
“I was coming at it from, what exactly was it that drove my mother insane?” he said. “It was a deeply personal kind of performance for me because I grew up trying to cope with what she was going through. She would talk in terms that were kind of poetry.
“I didn’t know how else to describe it. I tried to put that in the Longlegs character because he’s really a tragic entity. He’s at the mercy of these voices that are talking to him and getting him to do these things.”
For more, check out our guides to the 5 terrifying horror movies scarier than Longlegs. You can also find out how to watch Longlegs, as well as details on whether Longlegs is based on a true story.
