IN his latest film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, star Nicolas Cage gets to play both aspects of the character - renowned stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze and his flame-skulled alter-ego astride a bike engulfed by hellfire.
In the original 2007 film, the Ghost Rider was played by a number of stunt performers. But the actor relished taking on both personas this time and, as far as Cage is concerned, the more risk the better.
"The odd thing with me - when you see me with all this caffeine on the table - is that it calms me down. Red Bull relaxes me," he explained during an interview to promote the film.
"If someone puts some fire on me or asks me to drive very fast in a car chase, everything slows down and it gets my mind off whatever baggage may be happening. It all goes away and I relax, so I like doing stunts."
It's why he believes teaming up with film's directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor proved the perfect partnership.
"They have this gonzo energy, this wild intensity and they're both really up for anything. I think I fit into that, too," says Cage.
It was Taylor who suggested Cage inhabit Blaze's supernatural alter-ego over whom he has little control.
"That opened up all sorts of new doors for me," says the star, who's played multiple roles in a movie before - as twin brothers in the quirky comedy Adaptation, which earned him an Oscar nomination in 2003 - but this time the character wasn't human.
"Since the Ghost Rider's not anything you can relate to, it was important to me that there be some distance and some fear present when playing that part," he explains.
Cage has already revealed how he got into character by drawing on various unorthodox influences including shamanism, voodoo and the movements of cobras and Trent Reznor. He would turn up on set with his face painted like a death spirit, wearing black contact lenses and with ancient artefacts sewn into his costume.
It doesn't sound like the best state of mind for riding a high-powered motorcycle in dangerous stunt sequences. But Cage says he had every faith in the machine they chose for the film.
He said: "The truth is I was blessed to work with the Yamaha VMAX. I'm not a sponsor for Yamaha, I don't have a contract with Yamaha, but I have had my experiences on several different motorcycles and they're the best; because if you think of something that you want the bike to do, it'll happen.
"So I could go impossibly fast on that motorcycle, and tell it to stop safely and it will. And I totally trusted that motorcycle. I never got hurt."
He explained that he only gets chance to do this when making movies.
"My insurance today tells me that I'm not allowed to ride motorcycles in my own life so I have to do it when I'm working. I'm legally unable to ride motorcycles. It's a contract I have with my life insurance. So whenever I have a chance to do a movie and ride a bike I go for it."
So was his nearest and dearest worried? Cage married third wife Alice Kim in 2004, and says she was fine with all the high-octane sequences with the Yamaha.
"She loved it. She thought it looked great, she thought it was a very sexy motorcycle and wanted to have a ride on it," he laughs.
The actor is only too aware of the stereotypical images associated with motorbikes and those who ride them, recalling one conversation that gave him the idea for this new adventure. It happened while he was doing the press tour for the first movie.
"The genesis of the idea for Spirit of Vengeance began in London. I was promoting the Ghost Rider with [director of the first movie] Mark Johnson and I used to like to, in my own life, dress in leather pants and a leather jacket and motorcycle boots.
"And I went to Westminster Abbey on my lunch break, just on a lark," says Cage.
"I walked into an environmental summit with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, and a bishop from Colorado gave me a tour and then he introduced me to them.
"There I was, dressed as the Ghost Rider with these spiritual leaders, these very important spiritual leaders, and then the Denver bishop said to me, he whispered in my ear: 'And by the way, I can be naughty too'.
"So I thought: 'Okay, let's do a movie where the Ghost Rider is working with the Church.'"
http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2012/02/nicolas-cage-praises-yahama-vm.html
