Longlegs is a bonafide hit, grossing $100 million in global box office sales (distributor Neon’s best outing ever). The elegantly made horror film stars Maika Monroe as a young FBI agent on the hunt for the titular, cipher-obsessed serial killer played by Nicolas Cage. If you’ve seen the film, you know Cage’s unhinged performance is deeply unsettling. From the high-pitched voice to the swollen lips, all the way to the caked white makeup, the character of Longlegs is utterly terrifying. Since the film’s premiere, moviegoers have wondered just what exactly was behind Cage’s acting choices. So, how did Cage come to craft such an odd character? The answer is as unexpected as the film’s twist ending.

Nicolas Cage Based His ‘Longlegs’ Performance Off His Mother

The shocking answer was revealed during the film’s Hollywood premiere. In a red carpet interview for Extra (later published by Forbes), Cage was asked to expand on his approach to the character, and his answer raised a few eyebrows. Cage actually based the performance off his late mother, Joy Vogelsang, lending her mannerisms and voice to the film’s androgynous antagonist. In Cage’s own words, “When I was reading this character, it became about my mom. I heard her voice — she wasn’t Satanic — but she went through a lot,” he explained to Extra, “I heard her voice and the way she would move and suddenly I thought, ‘You know, I could put that into this character.’ That was an inspiration I owe [to her]. If I’m any good in the movie, I owe it to my mom.”

Nicolas Cage Also Borrowed From a Classic Italian Movie For His ‘Longlegs’ Performance

After he decided on what Longlegs’s voice and mannerisms would be, Cage searched next for the character’s visual inspiration. He landed on 1965’s Juliet of the Spirits, the trippy Federico Fellini-directed classic that centers around a wronged woman who gathers the strength to leave her cheating husband. The film, known for its strong themes of mysticism, was singled out by Cage when he took inspiration from one particular character — a female prophet with a unique appearance. He explained to Hollywood Reporter: “Finding this very androgynous, he-she look, glam rock look to the character that was important to me so that he didn’t look anything like me and that I found liberating, that I could speak in this way and move in this way and talk about these very dark things. I wanted the character to be an androgynous almost prophet, in the Fellini movie Juliet of the Spirits.”

‘Longlegs’ Secondary Villain Was Inspired By Osgood Perkins’ Mother
Image Via Neon

Coincidentally enough, Cage wasn’t the only member of the production to weave his mother into the storytelling. Director Oz Perkins (son of legendary Psycho actor Anthony Perkins) based the film’s secondary villain, Ruth Harker, off his own mother. In the film, the unassuming Ruth is forced to keep the identity of Longlegs a secret — a deeply personal parallel to Perkins’ own mother who held the secret of her husband’s sexuality for decades.

“My father was an actor who had sort of a private life that was not acceptable in the mainstream, whether you want to call him a gay man or a bisexual man,” Perkins explained to People, “Your mother can protect you from a truth that she thinks is unsavory, and then you just build out a crazy movie around that.” When asked if he holds any resentment toward his mother for keeping the secret of his father from him as a child, Perkins responded, “Not even a little bit.” He went on to say, “No one does it right. And my mom was really great… It’s what it is, and it’s what you were given, and you try to make something out of it.”

Longlegs is still playing in select theaters and is available to buy or rent on VOD.

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