At the Oscars this year he seemed rather gauche in his acceptance speech -- ‘I really want to act' -- but although he was a favourite he says he never really expected to win. That seemed too much to hope for. Cage is careful.He thinks all the time and is cursed with that habit of pondering what could happen if that did that or vice versa. When he discovered that his then girlfriend Christina Fulton was pregnant he wondered what it would do it his plans to be a debauched playboy. ‘The domestic side of me is there -- more than you could imagine. But am I going to be a frustrated 40-year-old?' His son Weston Coppola Cage is nearly six. He is married but not to his son's mother. He says his son has given him ‘the feeling of love'. Patricia Arquette has provided the excitement of love. They had met eight years ago and knew each other well. In Hollywood , a village of a place, they encountered each other again and again. One ebullient evening he inquired if she would marry him. She ignored him. Some months later they met again and she thought maybe it was something of an idea.Time went by and he sent her some flowers. Two weeks later she thought about ‘phoning him and asking him to marry her. In April last year they were all but hanging over a cliff above the Pacific and taking their marriage vows. They both now talk about ‘trust'. ‘I don't think I ever felt that before I now I do.That's what made the difference. I've always fueled from a relationship. When I say fueled I mean it's always motivated and inspired me. My relationships have always been tumultuous, kind of unstable. ‘Love is a very interesting emotion. It can make you crazy, it can make you happy, it can make you jealous, it can make you want to kill someone, it can make you want to cook for someone. It inspires all sorts of feelings. I've been drawn to romantic films which allow me to be free with the things that I do and also to purge some of the things that I feel. Love in general inspires me. ‘I'll tell you this -- I think if I wasn't acting I would probably be dead because I would... I mean it has been a tremendous outlet for anger and feelings. It's been an escape process. Without getting personal all my life I have generated these intense feelings. ‘It's in my nature to use extreme terms. I'm always black or white.It's very hard for me to be grey. ‘I would probably have turned to crime. I guess I should be careful what I say but I have at times felt criminal tendencies but because of the work I have able to release it. I've kept it on film. I'm attracted to outlaw characters, some sort of sociopath who get through the problem and the circumstances and rise above it and reach a place of dignity and morality. These are the kind of characters I dig. I don't identify with one particular character who has been on film but I've seen a lot of movies where I felt part of myself in the same situation in a fantasy world. ‘I think that Stanley Kubrick's “Clockwork Orange” inspired me and the character inspired me. I think that “East of Eden” inspired me. I saw that film when I was fifteen and I identified with this situation, with this need for the love from the father, the wanting to be acknowledged. I think it was the film that decided me to become an actor. I watched it and it moved me in such a way that no piece of music or book could do.' He says the men of the Coppola family have not seen his Oscar winning performance in ‘Leaving Las Vegas'. He puts it down to ‘old country jealousy' and a ‘kind of weirdness'. August Coppola told his son that by appearing in the film he was ‘making his epitaph'. This eminent member of the clan says he feels like ‘the black sheep' and adds:' There's a distance in the family which is very frustrating and I don't think it comes from love. I think it comes from the want to control and I don't want to be controlled.' So Nicolas Coppola got left behind. And Nicolas Cage keeps his seatbelt unfastened.
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