Cage spreads the word
2003-09-03 07:34
Italy - Oscar-winning actor Nicholas Cage said on Tuesday he wants to encourage greater public understanding of obsessive compulsive disorder in his new film, Matchstick Men directed by Ridley Scott.
He persuaded Scott to allow his character, a small-time crook named Roy, to have a nervous tic in the film, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival.
"The main thing I wanted to do with Roy was not to exploit or ridicule anyone with this condition," Cage told a news conference in Venice.
"I never wanted to make his condition funny. I wanted to present the character with love so that anyone who would see this person, would at some point eventually get beyond the tics and see the heart of the man," he said.
Cage, who won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995, said he consulted a Hollywood stunt-man friend with the condition to help him perfect the part.
"My hope is that after increasing some awareness of this condition you might go to a grocery store and see somebody who might be tic-ing and you wouldn't take it personally. You might understand him."