Unbearable Weight Star Lily Sheen Names Her Favorite Nicolas Cage Films - Exclusive
The new meta action-comedy "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" no doubt presented a unique opportunity for relative newcomer Lily Sheen. As the child of veteran Hollywood stars Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen, Lily Sheen plays the daughter of another famous actor opposite Nicolas Cage. However, the gig was far from a typical estranged daughter role, since her screen father is Cage playing a heightened version of himself.
New in theaters, "The Unbearable Weight" stars Nicolas Cage as Nick Cage, the Oscar-winning "Leaving Las Vegas" actor whose once-bright star is starting to dim. Offered $1 million to attend the birthday party of a rich superfan, Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), Nick accepts what appears to be an easy payday. But the actor is unaware that Javi is also a wanted crime boss, and before he knows it, his wife, Olivia (Sharon Horgan), and daughter, Addy (Sheen), are kidnapped by Javi's crew. Facing a perilous outcome, Nick is forced to channel the characters that made him an action movie star to rescue his family from their dangerous situation.
The brainchild of filmmakers Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, "The Unbearable Weight" includes several references to Cage's biggest roles. Being a part of the production, Sheen found the plot to be a bonus since she's such a huge fan of Cage's work.
Sheen's favorites from Cage run the gamut of the actor's eclectic career
In an exclusive interview with Looper, Sheen said it is "a difficult choice" trying to name one of Cage's films as her all-time favorite since she loves many of his films for a variety of reasons.
"'National Treasure' came out when I was a little kid, and I was able to grow up with him as this big-time action star," Sheen recalled. "When I became a bit more cognizant of his actual talent and how amazingly huge his body of work is, I could get into it. One of the first movies that I saw when I started really appreciating him as an actor was 'Leaving Las Vegas,' which is such a masterclass. You really can't see another performance like that."
Of Cage's more recent work, Sheen said she loves the acclaimed 2021 independent character drama "Pig."
"I talk about it all the time, but this movie, it blew my mind. It's such an achievement and he's phenomenal," Sheen said, beaming. "It's a testament to how much duality there is in his performances and in his creativity to be able to have these performances that in 'Leaving Las Vegas,' and in 'Raising Arizona,' there's so much absurdity and heightened reality and over-the-top chaos, and then he really pulls it back in 'Pig' — and does this really grounded, sensitive, emotional performance. It's incredible; you can't believe that he's the same person in all of his movies. He's really fantastic. I'm so happy ['The Unbearable Weight'] celebrates his body of work, it's incredible."
"The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" is now in theaters.