Nicolas Cage, known for his intense 'Nouveau Shamanic' approach to acting where he treats performance like surrealist art, has left fans amazed with his latest film role.
The first trailer for his new action-crime thriller Best Pancakes in the County just dropped, and movie fans are perplexed by his total facial transformation for the role.
Nicolas has undergone an epic physical change to play career criminal "The S.O.B.", complete with a prosthetic nose and a curly wig.
Set over the course of one high-stakes night, the film centres around an unassuming small-town diner in Arkansas. The chaos begins when The S.O.B seeks refuge at the diner after a botched heist.
Fans have been left awestruck by the first look at his transformation. One commented: "Classic Cage Nose work, right up there with wild at heart and never on a Tuesday," while another shared: "WTF CAGE".
The action heist movie also stars Justin Long, Shelley Hennig and Ravi Patel.
Cage is a chameleon on-screen
Nicolas is no stranger to undergoing a total body transformation for a role. Most recently, he endured hours of prosthetic work to play the creepy pale serial killer in horror film Longlegs.
Director Osgood Perkins hid Cage's full appearance from the cast until filming began, so his co-star Maika Monroe's heart rate spiked to 170 BPM when she first saw the terrifying costume on camera.
At the young age of 19, Nicolas famously went to extreme lengths to play a disfigured Vietnam War veteran in the 1984 film Birdy.
He underwent a tooth extraction without local anesthesia so he could better showcase severe pain and kept his face wrapped in medical bandages for five weeks, causing skin infections and discomfort.
Nicolas Cage's unique approach to his roles
The 62-year-old National Treasure actor has become synonymous with bold, unexpected roles and independent cinema.
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He previously revealed that he deliberately chooses to avoid working with major Hollywood studios so he can break traditional acting conventions.
"I wanted to go back to smaller, independent-spirited movies," he told The Guardian. "I like to break forms, try different things, and I don't think studios are comfortable with that. But in an independently spirited film, I can do that."
Nicolas, who favours sci-fi, horror and eccentric thrillers, has described his acting style as "operatic," "Western kabuki” and even "Nouveau Shamanic".
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Explaining his career choices, he told The A.V. Club: "When I started experimenting with fantasy and horror films... I saw opportunities to express my music – dare I say art – in a way that I could get a bit surreal.
"Sci-fi is abstract... It’s one of the only ways that a film actor can express himself in the abstract and have audiences still go along for the ride."
Best Pancakes in the County will be released in select theaters in the US and on VOD/digital platforms on November 20, 2026.