Nicholas Cage - Celebrity - Literature review Example

Nicholas Cage – Celebrity Order No. 358714 No. of pages: 8 Writer: 653 Introduction One of America’s most charming and attractive actors of all time is the world famous Nicolas Cage. Born on January 7th 1964, in Long Beach, California, USA, this 6’ 1” tall actor is the recipient of an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award. The original name of the 45 year old American actor was Nicolas Kim Coppola, but to avoid accusations of nepotism, had changed his name to Nicolas Cage. He comes from a family of filmmakers and actors which made it all the more important to carve a special niche for himself as one of the most outstanding actors in America, because the expectations of the family and the general audience were much higher. Our argument in this paper is going to deal with how he had risen from humble beginnings, worked hard against all odds and finally achieved the pinnacle of his success by becoming one of the most sought after actors of the present generation. Background of the study Achieving stardom was by no means an easy task for Nicolas Cage because many of his family members were great names in the film industry and pleasing or convincing them was a difficult task for him right from the beginning of his career which began at the early at the age of 16, when he made his first appearance in the film ‘Brubaker’ which failed to make much significance. His parents were highly successful in their own spheres. His father, August had achieved a lot in the field of academics as he was a well known professor in Comparative Literature at Cal State, Long Beach. Later on he became the Dean of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University. Nicolas’ mother Joy Vogelsang made her mark in the Arts as she was a renowned and famous dancer and choreographer. Bigger names in his family included his aunt Talia Shire, who was the star actor in all the Rocky movies including Stallone’s final and successful “Adrian Adrian”. His uncle was none other than the great Francis Ford Coppola, famous director of some of the most successful box office hits like “The Godfather” and “The Apocalypse.” Though he was greatly encouraged by all the members of his family, yet Nicolas Cage knew, he had to work extremely hard if he had to impress them. Nicholas had spent many a summer with his Film maker uncle, Francis Coppola in San Francisco, and though he grew close to both his cousins Sophia and Roman Coppola, yet the influences that surrounded him were not essentially filmic. In fact, it is said that though he could always act well, yet he did not aim to become an actor. However, his skills of acting never failed to impress those around them. On such incident to prove this point took place when he was a school going kid who got bullied by one of his classmates on the school bus and was relieved of his ‘Twinkies.’ He was visibly enraged at the bully’s attitude and when he returned home, he dressed himself in his brother’s cowboy boots and jeans and after slicking his hair back and donning on a pair of shades, he faced his tormentor claiming to be his elder cousin Roy Wilkinson. He warned the bully of dire circumstances if he did not leave alone the young Nic Coppola. This plan of his had worked wonders and he was never troubled again at all. This incident clearly shows his acting prowess and his ability to create the right impression. This incident also helped to boost his confidence as an actor still further. Another great influence in his life was his mother, Joy, who spent a good part of her life in the hospital because of her depressive and idiosyncratic views in life. Due to this, there were major problems in his family and finally his parents were divorced when he was about 12 years of age. Thereafter, his father moved with his son to San Francisco when he initiated him to a wide range of artistic pursuits that included Film, Classical music and Literature. Literature Review In the seminal work on ‘Stars as a Social Phenomenon,’ Dyer Richard (1998) makes an attempt to analyze the relationship between the different spheres and filmdom. In his work he tries to evaluate relationships in connection with celebrity status within celebrity culture. In Stars (1979) Dyer poses very pertinent questions on stardom by framing analyses of different stars ‘in the realm of representation and ideology’ (Barker, 2003,6) Dyer’s main focus was on the relationships that are shared between stars, stardom and individualism. According to Dyer, ‘Charisma’ is vital to stardom because it defines and promotes a star by taking them to a much higher level and placing them in a much more privileged position than before. In his book on ‘Stars’, Dyer draws from Weber’s ‘theory of charisma’, and enlighten us, on how the stars function in relation to society. According to Weber’s theory, ‘Persuasion, when not achieved by force, functions in three ways –by "tradition (going by the regular methods), bureaucracy (going according to what was agreed upon but being flexible), and charisma (doing something because the leader suggests it)." (30) However, Dyer is of the opinion that stars in the field of politics have much more charisma and influence over the general public than stars in the other media. Stars in general create an impression and identity for themselves and this is projected on the society and is followed by a wide audience. Summarizing Dyer’s approach, Paul McDonald, (1998, 176) states that his work is a clear investigation of how cinema is responsible for portraying the images of stars and how these images influence us in our identity not only of ourselves, but on that of others. In analyzing stardom, Dyer makes use of seminal methodological tools. In Dyer’s seminal work ‘Stars’, he focuses mainly on the period of Classical Hollywood cinema and how the concept of fame stardom and media celebrity took shape gradually and now is a well accepted fact in today’s contemporary film world. Graeme Turner, one of the leading authors of cultural studies, gives us a very comprehensive view on the concept of contemporary celebrity through his presentation of a broad survey across the different media. In his book ‘Understanding Celebrity’ he updates us on the salient features which include the definition of celebrity and the history, culture and social functions that surround it. He makes a thorough investigation of various contemporary media such as film, television, books, newspapers and the Worldwide Web. Turner (2006, 156) gives us his views about celebrity in relation to Reality Television. According to Turner, it is not necessary to be a film star in order to be a celebrity. High quality programs that are exceedingly viable have managed to carve a niche for themselves in media economy and are thriving well alongside the mainstream entertainment. Reality television has been successful in creating stars or celebrities from among the common man. Programs like ‘American Idol’ and ‘Survivor’ are huge successes and the media has been able to capitalize on the success. Commenting on Rojek’s description of the ‘Celetoid’ form of celebrity, Turner tries to understand the concept of celebrity from the point of view of Reality TV. According to Rojek, celebrity is the consequence of the ‘attribution of qualities to a particular individual through mass media.’ (Rojek, 2001, 10) Turner argues that the concept of celebrity has accrued different values and meanings because corporations are willing to take on the uncertainties and risks that are associated with such businesses. Reality T.V has been responsible for the ‘democratization’ of fame, by highlighting the ‘ordinariness’ of its stars, making it all the more appealing to the common man. In this scenario, the concept of celebrity takes on gender neutral forms ‘cause it treats meant and women alike and on the same platform. Reality Television has benefited a lot by capitalizing on the ‘ordinariness’ of its stars which is so important to their business. In his book on ‘Understanding Celebrity’ Turner says that contemporary of the popular culture looks upon celebrity as a means of social and cultural change.’ (Turner,) Daniel Boorstin (1961) Make some interesting remarks and the aspect of celebrity culture. According to Boorstin, ‘the celebrity is a person who is well known for his well - knownness” (Boorstin, 1961: 58) in his opinion, celebrities do not achieve fame because of the greatness, but because they satisfy the general public’s exaggerated expectation of human loftiness. They differentiate themselves from the general public by ‘trivia of personality’. He calls their act a ‘pseudo event’ because it is the media that creates the image and viability of its effectiveness. (Ibid, 57) Conclusion The phenomenon of celebrity or star, in the contemporary age, projects an ontological shift in relation to popular culture. ‘The celebrity becomes a key site of attention from the media and also one of the key spots where cultural meanings are negotiated and organized.’ (Marshall, 1997, 72 -3) The media legitimizes their interest in celebrities by giving them a platform for expression and capitalizes on their popularity. Indirectly, the media satisfies the desires, beliefs and aspirations of the consumer who is happy and contented to indulge themselves in their expression. There is hardly any distinction in the way the media treats celebrities. Whether they are political figures, or stars belonging to the Film or Television genre or if they are sports stars, artists etc. they are elevated to a very respectable position in the society and very soon they have a faithful fan following, who try to satisfy their goals and aspirations by attaching themselves to them. In lieu of such stardom which automatically endows them with celebrity status, Nicholas Cage can be looked upon as an outstanding example. Stardom did not come easy to him, just because his relatives were big names in the industry. He was one star who believed in himself and in all that he did. He was an exceedingly hard worker who went out of his way to carve a niche for himself in the world of glitz and glamour. All his hard work paid off when Cage was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the movies ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Honeymoon in Vegas’ but had to wait for a long period of 15 years to bag the award for the movie ‘Leaving Las Vegas.’ This movie also won him a row of other prestigious awards like the Academy award for best actor, New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor, Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, to mention a few. His stint at directing other people also made him even more successful. Passing his comments about his directorial debut, he is supposed to have stated – “I get stimulated by creative people, and by meeting talented people. I like putting things together, and seeing how they work.” (~Nicolas Cage) Nicolas Cage was always known for his daring acceptance of roles in his movies and took acting as a serious career and has given some real good movies with his impeccable acting. His commitment towards acting is absolutely impressive as for instance, eating a live cockroach for the movies Vampire’s Kiss in 1988 and for the film Birdy, knocking off a tooth shows how seriously he took movies and acting. From action movies to steaming romances, from professional to an introspective, he mastered all those roles with ease and that makes him one of the best actors of Hollywood today. References Barker, M. (2003) ‘Introduction in T. Austin and M. Barker (eds) Contemporary Hollywood Stardom, London: Arnold, 2003, pp. 1 – 24. Nicolas Cage http://www.hollywood.com/celebrity/194691/Nicolas_Cage Dyer Richard 1998, ‘Part One: Stars as a social phenomenon ‘ ‘(extract), in Stars, 2nd edn. British Film Institute, London pp. 5 – 19 Marshall P. David 2006, Intimately intertwined. The Celebrity Culture Reader. Pp. 315 - 323 McDonald, Paul 2000 Stardom as a system’, in The Star System, Routledge, London, pp. 5 – 13 McDonald, P. (1998) ‘Reconceptualising Stardom’ in Richard Dyer’s ‘Stars’ 2nd edn. London: BFI, pp. 175 – 200) Turner Graeme, 2004. Celebrity, the tabloid and the democratic public sphere . in ‘Understanding Celebrity’ Sage, London, pp. 71 – 86 Turner, Graeme. "The Mass Production of Celebrity: 'Celetoids', Reality TV and the 'Demotic Turn.'" International Journal of Cultural Studies 9 (2006): 153-165. Read More