Cage was instrumental in choosing the location for the film and at the LA press day for Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Cage said he decided on New Orleans because he had to face his fears and go through a catharsis. "New Orleans is a very potent city in my life for various reasons," said Cage. "It’s a combination of different energies – African, French, English, Spanish - and there’s a lot of magic there. I’ve had a lot of experiences there, and I wanted to go back there and confront it. I knew that I would channel that energy, and it could either be a disaster, or be something beautiful, so I was up for the challenge."
And speaking of challenges, Cage had a bad back throughout the filming of Bad Lieutenant. Instead of trying to hide the fact, Cage used it for the character. "Let’s be totally honest – I designed Terence. I came in with a vision, and a bad back, I was thinking of things like Richard the Third. I like to get my body into it. My mother was a dancer, so I like to use the body as part of the instrument of acting. So I saw this back injury as an opportunity to transform myself. So that’s where that came from," explained Cage.
In putting together the character Cage also decided, along with Herzog, to not use a Southern accent for the role. "Werner and I agreed we don’t need it. He could have been from anywhere. He is a New Orleans cop, his identity was New Orleans, he took pride in being in the South, he said, 'We don’t hit women down South,' so that’s his identity, but he could have been from anywhere. Just like me." Curiously, a sinus infection in Australia also contributed to how he played McDonagh. "I was in Australia when I got the script," said Cage. "The strangest thing is that in Australia they still use cocaine to clear your sinuses, and I had a massive sinus infection. I was trying to understand how to recall something from 100 years in my past, and I couldn’t get it, and then they sent me to the doctor, and he put this cocaine solution in my nose. Then I came out and just started taking notes, and I noticed that my mouth was getting really dry and I was feeling very invincible. Then I started doing the scenes, and improvising the scenes, and coming up with ideas, and swallowing a lot. Then I was graphing it in the script, finding scenes where he was doing coke, and figured out how to behave - to start swallowing a lot or do a lot of lip smacking. Or scenes where he’d be doing heroin, and I figured he’d be very itchy, and there’s going to be nodding and he’s going to be much slower. The problem is, I didn’t know when Werner was going to cut the scene with me taking the heroin, or the scene with me taking the coke, so we’d have to re-graph the whole direction of the performance."
On Rehearsals and His Career
Cage said he thought he and Herzog had a perfect marriage of styles while preparing for and working on Bad Lieutenant. "He moves very quickly. My best takes are my first two takes. He has confidence in what I’m going to do and I have confidence in what he’s going to do, that he’ll get it. Sometimes I do love to rehearse, but I always switch it up depending on whom I’m working with. I know Werner likes to do as little rehearsal as possible, because he likes freshness and spontaneity, and I appreciate that," said Cage."I have been blessed to be able to be eclectic, and I thankful for that," said Cage when asked about working in independent films versus big studio productions and the direction of his career. "As I got older, with my work I became aware of the responsibility of film, and I feel one of the best ways I can apply myself as an actor is to go beyond movie stardom and celebrity. These movies, these so called 'popcorn' movies, or family movies, actually provide something quite beautiful and something quite necessary, which is a family bonding experience. So God bless the popcorn film, especially movies where you can take the kids, because I remember looking forward to seeing these movies with my parents, and if I can give that back, I’m gonna do it. I don’t care if people have criticism for it or not. I think it’s a good thing. And I still have interest in the midnight audience. I want to make movies for my roots, the people who like to go see Bad Lieutenant at midnight or Vampire’s Kiss or Bringing Out the Dead or Wild At Heart, so I’m going to keep doing a little bit of everything."
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Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans hits theaters in limited release on November 20, 2009 and is rated R for drug use and language throughout, some violence and sexuality.
