Patrick Stoner: I can see your contributions to the script. Is this now a part of your work?Nicolas Cage: Yeah, when they'll let me, it is. I got a copy of the script and I saw the potential, but Cameron Poe [Cage's part in CON AIR] wasn't a very real person -- just the usual "average guy in a dangerous situation." I wanted him to be more than that.
Stoner: How much of him did you create?
Cage: Well, I decided he had to have been a Special Forces guy, so it would be believable that he could fight and kill so easily. There's also a quietness about those men -- a quietness that comes from their own security and sense of competence. They don't have anything to prove to anyone else. They're slow to provoke and quick to action.
Stoner: And they have a sense of honor that would help this character.
Cage: Right, Pat -- never leave a comrade down, that kind of thing. And I wanted it to make sense that he would stay on that airplane even when his own sense of self-preservation would be pushing him to get off when he has the chance. So, his background and sense of honor keep him there to help his sick friend. But I wanted something more: I got one of the guards who are captured by the cons to be changed to a woman character. This creates a threat of rape. Poe couldn't leave her unprotected. No decent man could, but I wanted to emphasize that by making him a Southerner, they have a strong sense of chivalry when it comes to women. So, making him a Southern former Special Forces guy made him a much more believable character to me.
Stoner: Yes, but there's more than that, and I KNOW that it was you who added it. There was his oddly poetic way of talking and his intensity about his family. The bunny thing -- "Put the bunny back in the box" -- I loved that.
Cage: Yeah, I loved that too. I'm proud of that. The whole bunny thing was mine [laughs]. Well, I wanted him to be sweetly longing for the daughter he's never seen and to fixate on that stuffed bunny as his special present for her. I wanted that to be symbolic of all of the pain and loss he had gone through just for protecting his pregnant wife -- protecting her too well, and getting thrown into prison.
Stoner: You don't always get to contribute this much to the script, do you?
Cage: Not always, but it's becoming more and more common for actors -- at least, actors who've gotten some star power behind them -- to adjust the parts to fit their personalities and be more three-dimensional. I've always cared about the script a great deal ...
Stoner: I know. You mark it like a musical score, you once told me.
Cage: I do. It's GOT to flow and match my rhythms and feel right for me. It also helps the film when the character is acting in a way that is properly motivated. Fortunately, Jerry Bruckheimer [CON AIR's producer] is very open to suggestions and changes. I think it made a big difference in this movie.
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