NICOLAS CAGE On Coming Back To Once Again Play Ghost Rider: I feel that we got up to something really interesting with the first movie and I’m very happy with the first movie, as I know he is and even Brian likes the first movie, but it really ends there. It’s a completely different experience. For me, John Blaze, his head is already ignited so when you meet him, he’s in a much different place in this movie than in the other movie. It’s almost a completely different character in many ways. A much edgier, almost cynical interpretation than the original or than the Ghost Rider movie. In that movie John was trying to keep everything at bay and so he’s trying to almost pacify himself with these kind of absurd habits that he was forming to keep things from erupting. In this one, he’s already been living in isolation in Romania. When you meet him, he’s a much different kind of persona.
On The Character Of Johnny Blaze: It’s more about the interplay between Ghost Rider and John Blaze and how the two of them sort of inform each other and that’s quite a bit different. Also, trying to go into areas that are more enigmatic or abstract. When you’re playing a character like Ghost Rider, again without telling you what my thoughts are and I don’t want to label it but I want to be the kind of thing where you have to ask yourself, “What was I thinking?” or “What were we thinking?” because I don’t want him to be anything that you can relate to. I want him to be a completely alien entity to you and how you receive him. Anything I say to it will take away from that.
On What Fans Can Look Forward To From The Movie: I think they can look forward to, going back to some of the Ghost Rider sequences, a really trippy, mess with your mind, freaked out, high adrenaline, wild energy in the photography and in what the actors are doing. There’s a scene in the quarry, we call it “the quarry scene” where there are some moves that Ghost Rider gets into that I think will have you replaying it in your mind and wondering what was going on, like some of the moves within the action.
IDRIS ELBA On What Exactly We Can Expect From "Moreau": Yeah, Moreau is supposed to be a very religious man. A monk, in fact. But he’s got his vices. He’s traveled the world. I’m not sure if his faith is as strong as it should be, but in any case he’s a righteous man. His journey in this film is to seek out Danny, and to protect Danny for the day of prophecy. And basically he goes about that by any means necessary. He meets up with Johnny Blaze and Johnny Blaze thinks, “Who is this guy? This crazy guy?” ‘Cuz you know I like a drink and I’m on the bikes and I’m prepared to go for it. It’s actually one of my favorite characters to play; I get to be a little bit more comical than usual and that’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.
On The Mysterious Nationality Of The Character: Nationality. We haven’t really established that, but I’m thinking he’s raised in a Francophone country, perhaps. He’s traveled a lot. So I’m sort of placing his accent based on a French thing, and he’s a traveler. Been around the world.
On What It Was Like Working With Directing Duo Neveldine/Taylor: This is actually my first experience working with two directors, you know, a duo, team. It’s quite an interesting one. What one director focuses on, the other one steps back a little bit and vice versa. They’re great guys, very courageous. First thing I noticed is that they operate the camera themselves, so that’s quite interesting. One of the first sequences I had to do, I had to get on this bike. And I’m nervous on this bike, but Mark gets behind me on rollerblades and is holding on with the camera. And I’m nervous driving this thing on my own, but there’s this guy, this director, and we’re doing like 30 miles an hour down some Romanian strip, and he’s (noise) “whirrrrr” filming me the whole time, which is pretty amazing. But they’re really good guys, good directors, fun to work with.
CIARAN HINDS On Signing Up To Play "The Devil": That would seem to be the case, having only been offered twice to play the Devil and I’ve said yes both times. [laughs] It’s funny, I don’t know, this came out of the blue for me really, ‘cause I didn’t know Brian [Taylor] and Mark [Neveldine], the directors, didn’t know them at all, and I didn’t know the genre. And obviously I have an agent who’s on the ball and who said, “There’s this project that’s going and it might be fun and it might be very interesting. Do you want to play the Devil?” Which I didn’t know it was the Devil — he was called “Rourke” when I read it, and then bit by bit you read the script and you understand that it’s someone else. But when I was asked to do it, I was actually playing a Vatican priest who was giving lectures on exorcism, so I thought I had to go there as well and find out what it was talking about.
On His Portrayal Of The Villain: He’s not a very good Devil, ‘cause if he were, everybody would be in tatters, you know what I mean? But at the same time, one on one you only actually see him, you see him use his powers twice. Most of the time it’s a race against time for him. He’s a devil on his way out. That’s what it is. His body is giving up on him and that’s why he’s trying to retain a sense of ease and control and having everything happen. Meanwhile, his body — his face is starting to fall off him. You know, it’s sort of the human weakness that he’s placed himself into the vessel of a human being and it’s giving up on him, you know, which also pisses him off. So for him, with the whole shell disintegrating, the idea is that he has to find a new receptacle in which he can regenerate and push on to further adventures. That’s the journey. And so for him, he wants to remain calm in the situation. But bit by bit, he comes to the moment where there’s an hour of prophecy that you have to be in; it’s a race against time.
On Whether This Version Is Connected To The One From The Last Movie: The boys haven’t alluded to it at all, and I think Brian and Mark had decided that we were going to take this and put our stamp on it. We’re not following a track that’s been laid down. We’re taking the story and we’re beginning with what we want to do, therefore they don’t feel, I don’t think, obliged to follow what’s been set down before. They have their own energy, their own creative juices, wouldn’t dictate to them, I imagine. Except there is a connection, that the producers were on the first one as well, so maybe they have an overall rider on how it should be done.
Be sure to click on the link below to find the links to each of these interviews in full. In them, the three actors further discuss their respective roles in the movie as well as what it was like shooting in 3D, working with the directors, taking part in the many action sequences and much, much more. They also talk with Brian Taylor, Violante Placido and Fergus Riordan.
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