{"id":477848,"date":"2026-06-01T18:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477848\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T18:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:16:11","slug":"nicolas-cage-spider-noir-indiewire-honors-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477848\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolas Cage: ‘Spider-Noir,’ IndieWire Honors Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

On June 4, the\u00a0IndieWire\u00a0Honors\u00a0Spring 2026 ceremony\u00a0will\u00a0celebrate the creators and stars responsible<\/a>\u00a0for crafting some of the year\u2019s best television series. Curated and selected by IndieWire\u2019s editorial team, IndieWire\u00a0Honors\u00a0is a celebration of the creators, artisans, and performers behind shows well worth toasting. In the days leading up to the Los Angeles event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new\u00a0interviews<\/a>\u00a0and tributes from their peers.<\/p>\n

Without Nicolas Cage<\/a>, a project like \u201cSpider-Noir<\/a>\u201d would have been dead on arrival. Even as Phil Lord and Chris Miller\u2019s animated \u201cSpider-Verse\u201d movies continue to showcase the endless versatility of Marvel\u2019s favorite webslinger, the notion of a black-and-white Spider-Man series<\/a> about a tortured P.I. that\u2019s as indebted to classic film noir as any comic book is a tough sell. But the idea of Cage leading his own version of \u201cThe Big Sleep\u201d is enough to intrigue even the most superhero-fatigued audiences. And the actor embraces the great responsibility that accompanies his star power, turning in the kind of manic, genre-bending performance for which he\u2019s singularly equipped.<\/p>\n

\"WEST<\/a> \"Michelle<\/a> <\/p>\n

It makes Cage a fitting recipient of the Innovation Award at this week\u2019s IndieWire Honors<\/a>. Five decades into one of the great acting careers in Hollywood history, Cage has never stopped trying new things. The Oscar winner was one of the biggest studio movie stars of the \u201990s, became the undisputed king of weird 2010s indies who helped countless early-career auteurs get their films of the ground, and is now proving himself capable of hanging with the very best TV<\/a> stars. <\/p>\n

Through it all, Cage has kept a foot in the comic book world. He was famously cast as Superman in Tim Burton\u2019s film that never materialized, and went on to reprise his role from the screen test in a brief cameo in \u201cThe Flash.\u201d He then starred in two \u201cGhost Rider\u201d movies, and even considered playing Green Goblin in Sam Raimi\u2019s \u201cSpider-Man\u201d before a scheduling conflict with \u201cAdaptation\u201d forced him to turn down the role. But as the actor explained during a recent conversation with IndieWire, he evaluates those roles with the same rigor as his less heroic fare \u2014 and only signs on if they interest him on a human level. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe superhero phenomenon, if you will, was most interesting to me when I was 11 years old,\u201d Cage said, recalling his childhood fascination with \u201cThe Incredible Hulk\u201d comics that eventually gave way to more adult interests. \u201cBut I\u2019m not really interested in superheroes. I\u2019m interested in the psyche. I\u2019m interested in film performance and I\u2019m interested in acting and different styles of acting. Whether it\u2019s comedy or drama or action adventure or whether it\u2019s old style acting or kabuki or opera, I\u2019m interested in all of it. I love it all, but I\u2019m always looking for something new to explore and to do. And so with \u2018Spider-Noir,\u2019 it\u2019s one of the rare maybe two or three times where this vision in my imagination manifested exactly as I had hoped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Spider-Noir'\u2018Spider-Noir\u2019 Courtesy of Aaron Epstein \/ Amazon Prime Video<\/p>\n

Cage said that vision started to take shape when Amy Pascal called him two years after the success of \u201cInto the Spider-Verse\u201d and pitched him on the idea of reviving the Spider-Man Noir character that he voiced in a live-action format. Cage was immediately intrigued, although he understood that turning a sparsely-used cartoon character into a protagonist capable of carrying an entire show meant that he wasn\u2019t reprising a role so much as building something new.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that the sketch, if you will, was established on the \u2018Spider-Verse\u2019 animated movie, but now because there\u2019s more time and I\u2019m actually on camera, it couldn\u2019t be a sketch anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cIt had to go a little deeper and it had to have more complexity and it had to entertain you with a long format. And the trick was not to have it wear out its welcome or become like an impression or a comedy sketch. It had to breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

That task, combined with the fact that \u201cSpider-Noir\u201d would be his first episodic role, gave Cage one of the richest canvases of his acting career. His take on Ben Reilly (also known as The Spider) is both a Mid-Atlantic caricature of film noir protagonists and a Cronenberg-esque creature who blends spider and man more literally than any version of that Marvel character we\u2019ve ever seen. (Cage cites Jeff Goldblum\u2019s performance in \u201cThe Fly\u201d as one of his biggest inspirations for the role.) It\u2019s a Cage performance for the ages, taking the creativity of his best indie work and fitting it into an I.P.-driven project that millions will watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can I take this black and white noir style of film performance and collide it with Stan Lee\u2019s masterpiece, Spider-Man, and create this spark of something new and something fresh?,\u201d he recalled asking himself, eventually finding the answer to his own question within his deep reserves of film knowledge. \u201cYou go to those little places in your memory Rolodex or your library of experience and you try to find the emotion that you can inform through the filter of the noir style of acting, that fast talking acting and bring the pathos, if you will. All of that, and also the physiology, the arachnid physiology, all of that was different levels than you saw in the \u2018Spider-Verse.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Cage cites films like \u201cThe Big Sleep,\u201d \u201cThe Maltese Falcon,\u201d \u201cCasablanca,\u201d \u201cIn a Lonely Place,\u201d \u201cHe Walked By Night,\u201d and \u201cDouble Indemnity\u201d as influences on his performance. He explained that he was drawn to the contrasting emotional extremes required to fit a performance into the black-and-white color palette. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all black-and-white movies,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have a style to the acting and it fits within the beautiful cinematography<\/a> and the lighting. The Chiaroscuro style of acting, which is also a fast-paced style. And then no one\u2019s perfectly good in war. Everyone has a little bit of a bad story to tell, which makes it more human, more authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Cage\u2019s affection for the entire pantheon of American film noir stars is apparent, he kept turning back to Bogart, picking up on subtle nuances in the actor\u2019s style that paid dividends in \u201cSpider-Noir.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"“Ben\u2018Spider-Noir\u2019Courtesy of Prime<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I noticed about Bogart in \u2018The Big Sleep\u2019 was that he seemed to be so bemused whenever anybody was doing anything naughty, particularly the femme fatales. When they were doing something that was a little bit wicked, most people are like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re going to hurt me.\u2019 But he would start laughing, and I thought that was so fun to watch,\u201d Cage said. \u201cAnd so I tried to put a little of that with Li Jun Li in the scene with the piano. I think it was the first episode and there\u2019s that, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re good. And obvious.\u2019 All that kind of stuff was that flavor that I watched Bogart do, which I thought was so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cage has not been shy in recent years about his desire to eventually leave movies behind and focus on the long-form acting opportunities that television offers. Now that he\u2019s tried the new medium, Cage says that remains partially true. While he\u2019s keen to do more TV, he explained that scratching one creative itch simply creates new ones. <\/p>\n

\u201cDoing a season of television makes me interested in movies again. So I knew I had to try something else to reinvigorate and restimulate my process. And now I\u2019ve done this and I\u2019m happy with the results and I feel like I\u2019ve learned something. I also feel like I have a little more confidence and I could see myself making more movies again,\u201d he said. \u201cYet, what\u2019s next? I mean, maybe a musical or maybe I try some stage work. I don\u2019t know. But whatever it is, the older I get, the harder it is to stay interested. So I have to keep pushing myself to find new sounds, new images to create.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cage also made it clear that part of the appeal of television is the potential it brings to reach larger audiences. He recalled the way his late friend David Lynch introduced his distinct brand of surrealism to the masses with \u201cTwin Peaks\u201d and expressed hope that \u201cSpider-Noir\u201d could spark a renaissance in classic noir. He always envisioned the project as a black-and-white show, but embraced its multi-format release strategy with the hope that watching episodes in color might make it easier for younger audiences to dip their toes into the dormant genre. <\/p>\n

That sentiment encapsulates the timelessness of Nicolas Cage. His reverence for Hollywood history is apparent, and his endless study of past art makes him one of the most exciting performers of our present. <\/p>\n

\u201cTelevision is a marvelous tool to be able to introduce different generations and different audiences to different styles. And so in this case, I\u2019m hopeful about that 1930s noir style of acting, and it is a style. I said to [former Amazon Studios head] Jen Salke when I met her, \u2018Just because the 13-year-old doesn\u2019t know who Humphrey Bogart is doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t work. The point is it works, it communicates and they\u2019re going to get it.\u2019 So if you can do that and interest other generations to watch the old movies again and discover this wealth of American cinema that we have, I mean, I think that\u2019s only going to make them want to make great movies in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpider-Noir\u201d is now streaming on Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On June 4, the\u00a0IndieWire\u00a0Honors\u00a0Spring 2026 ceremony\u00a0will\u00a0celebrate the creators and stars responsible\u00a0for crafting some of the year\u2019s best television…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6971,321,93,61,92450,205965,1694,60,8705,146275,282],"class_list":["post-477848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-awards","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-indiewire-honors","tag-indiewire-honors-2026","tag-interviews","tag-ireland","tag-nicolas-cage","tag-spider-noir","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}