Nicolas Cage Picks Just One of His 120 Movies That He Wants You to Watch

If you’ve never seen a Nicolas Cage film — and, let’s face it, there are a lot of them to choose from — which should you see?

Cage was asked this question during a sit-down with The New Yorker. The actor has appeared in nearly 120 films since his breakout starring role in 1983’s Valley Girl and will be next seen in a rare supporting role in the horror movie Longlegs. Along the way, he won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas and racked up several fan-favorite performances in films such as 1987’s Moonstruck, 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss, 1995’s Face/Off and 2002’s Adaptation.

Yet, Cage didn’t pick any of those.

Instead, he chose Michael Sarnoski’s 2021 drama Pig, in which Cage plays a despondent loner and former acclaimed chef on the hunt for thieves who stole his beloved truffle pig. The film earned some of Cage’s best reviews in his career, and racked up a 97 percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Explained Cage: “[Pig is] something that I think people can get something out of, because tragedy is going to hit all of us at some point. It’s just a matter of when. It’s also a movie that to me is like a folk song. It’s very quiet, gentle movie, which is the polar opposite of … people thinking I’m crazy” due to the sort of high-energy and extravagant characters Cage has played in the past.

When it’s pointed out how recent the film is, and that it’s perhaps good that his favorite role isn’t something from decades earlier, Cage replies, “Yes … I think [acting] now is — for me, anyway — more interesting, and it’s more personal.”

At another point in the interview, Cage once again expressed fears about artificial intelligence. Noting he was getting a digital image scan for a film he was doing, he said, “They have to put me in a computer and match my eye color and change — I don’t know. They’re just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital AI … God, I hope not AI. I’m terrified of that. I’ve been very vocal about it.”

Cage agreed he found the idea “scary” and added, “It makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artist end up? Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where’s the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and face when I’m dead? I don’t want anything to do with it!”

Pig is currently streaming on Hulu, while Longlegs opens in theaters this week.