Hell Cycle from Ghost Rider |
Not all superheroes are nice, good-looking people in spandex: take Marvel Comics’ Ghost Rider, for example: Not only is the source of his power from the darkest corner of Hell, but when he’s out fighting for what’s right, he takes the form of a badass biker in a chains and a spiked leather jacket, and his head erupts into a flaming skull. As Ghost Rider prepares to steer his Hellcycle into theaters next year, Hollywood.com took a spectral tour of the minds of stars Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, along with director Mark Steven Johnson.
Hollywood.com: Nic, I understand you’ve been a Ghost Rider fan since you were a kid?
Nicolas Cage: Oh yes, absolutely. I enjoyed the image of the skull on fire when I was a boy, and the mythology of it. The Faust-like storyline was so original for a Marvel comic book character. There isn't really any other one quite like Ghost Rider, and that's why I think that he's fresh. I think that it's time for a new kind of superhero. I'm speaking to the Ghost Rider fans. [Laughs] Let’s step out. We all know who we are.
HW: There have been several times where you’ve almost played a comic book hero, from Superman to Constantine. How gratifying was it for you to finally bring a character you love to the screen?
Cage: It was wonderful for me, because as you know it's been a long time that I've been trying to do it, but I'm a big believer that the right character is the one that ultimately happens. While I enjoyed Superman [Returns], I enjoyed the new movie, I think that Brandon [Routh] was the right choice for that part, and I absolutely think that Ghost Rider is the right choice for me to play. It's a better match. I'm glad that it worked out this way, and I want you all to see it.
HW: Is that almost always you as Ghost Rider, even with the CGI flaming skull added?
Cage: Well, I'll let Mark [Steven Johnson] talk about that because there was a lot of creative people who worked on the film and they did a lot of creative designing.
Mark Steven Johnson: A bunch of the time it is Nic, and some of the time it's not—it depends on if there's a stunt involved. It's both. It is quite an elaborate get up that they had. Interactive fire has been kind of the bane of our existence these last few years. CG fire is the toughest thing to do. And what we would do is that we would have a green hood on with these lights that would give you interactive lighting on your shoulders. Remove the head and we could put in the skull and the fire and whatnot, but it proved to be a lot more difficult than we thought, because it was real fire for all purposes, but sometimes when you moved the fire wouldn't move the way it should've and it would feel wrong. So it took a tremendous amount of time working, and working on all of Nic's expressions with the skull—which hard to do without lips or eyes or a tongue and still make it look like it's Nic.
HW: Nic, you’re known for immersing yourself very deeply into your character—how deep into Johnny Blaze’s, uh, skull did you get?
Cage: I was really invited in early on in the process, and so I like to think that I was building it all up from scratch along with Mark. And as he was writing we would talk, and even right before we went to film in Australia we were coming up with ideas to add on to the character. I think that traditionalists of the comic book will be happy, but we did build up the story and add on to the character. There are little—what can I call it?—habits that he has. He has a fetish for jellybeans and he reads a lot, but he's something of a cowboy. Mark was very excited about the Western element of the character, harkening back to the original [1950s comic book] Ghost Rider which you're familiar with, that Sam [Elliot] plays…
Eva Mendes: And he's a Karen Carpenter fan, which I thought was very interesting.
Cage: Oh, yes. Ghost Rider is a Karen Carpenter fan.
Johnson: I swear this will make sense. I swear. [Laughs]
Cage: The way that I thought of that is that I remember when I was in a dental chair they're always playing these very soft and soothing types of music, and Johnny Blaze is sort of literally sitting in a dental chair every second of the day wondering when the Devil is going to come and claim his purchase. So I think that he's constantly trying to relax and so instead of the bourbon-drinking, chain-smoking badass I think that he's such a badass that he needs to calm down with Karen Carpenter and jellybeans.
HW: What’s your favorite Ghost Rider incarnation from the comics?
Johnson: Which is my take? Mine is the original. Mine is Johnny Blaze. It's really pretty much the classic story. Very few changes [in ours], but it's all about selling your soul and in our case it's the father, not the step father, but the father who has lung cancer who having to leave the girl behind was cursed and having to hit the road—all of that stuff is in. What I got from the later, the Danny Ketch era, which I loved graphically and thought was always really beautiful, was some of the looks—The spiked jacket with the big chains. This isn't the blue full-body jumpsuit and the motorcycle that he had in the early comics. I wasn't a big fan of that. I thought that we could do better, but the actual look with the chain around his head and the spikes, that was all the later stuff from the Ketch years, which I liked a lot. And the Caretaker from the Ketch years was a character that I always liked a lot and I wanted to find a way to use him, as was Blackheart. So a lot of it was taken from later, but the origin and the heart of it and the soul of it was from the Blaze years.
HW: Eva, how does your character fit into the storyline?
Mendes: I play Roxanne Simpson, Johnny Blaze's long-lost love. And I think that what changed—I was really happy that Mark kind of took a chance on me because the original Roxanne was actually his step-sister, correct? So he changed that, and so it's no longer that. That's kind of weird. [Laughs] I don't know. I'm open, but I'm not that open. So I'm glad he changed that story point, and then Roxanne in the comic book had blonde hair and blue eyes and was just different visually from me. So I'm glad that he took a chance and gave it a little flavor, a little spice.
HW: What was the primary allure for you to do a comic book film?
Mendes: Well, two of the allures are sitting right next to me. I'm a huge Nic Cage fan and obviously Mark Steven Johnson, I love this dude. And then I really didn't know much about comic books at all, but then speaking to these guys and getting into it a little bit I honestly just wanted to have some kind of FX. I had a little superhero envy because I really wanted some kind of extra arm. I don't know. Something. No. I really enjoyed playing Roxanne. She's lovely. She's a reporter and she doesn't have fire coming out of her skull, but she's cool.
Johnson: I know what you're saying. It's like, “I don't just want to be the chick.” Cut you later with your dress torn and a shotgun.
Cage: Eva added a lot of fun to the character and to the movie. It was great doing scenes with her and the magic eight ball. Not in the wrong sense, but the ploy that you would ask questions and be really funny in the scenes. She added a lot of humor to it.
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