Blair Underwood didn’t get to share any scenes with Nicolas Cage in Longlegs, but he was floored by how dedicated the actor was to bringing the titular serial killer to life.
Warning: Spoilers below for Longlegs.
“He came in and did most of his work in one or two days, and the word was that he was very Method,” Underwood, 59, exclusively shared with Us Weekly while promoting the horror film. “That character is so dark, and I thought he was absolutely brilliant in this role. But he really stayed on his own. They said cut, and he didn’t talk to anybody before action. He just stayed in the zone, which they all respected.”
Underwood portrays Agent Carter in the film, who has been working with the FBI on catching the infamous Longlegs, played by Cage, for years. He ultimately recruits Maika Monroe’s Lee Harker to help him with the case in hopes that her mysterious abilities will help solve the case.
While Carter and Longlegs never cross paths on screen, Underwood said director Osgood Perkins let him in on how impressive Cage’s performance was turning out to be.
“Oz was excited by him. He said, ‘Man, wait till you see what Cage is doing, man,’” Underwood recalled. “And he showed me some pictures of how he looked. He said, ‘He doesn’t look like himself, doesn’t sound like himself.’ I got the hype beforehand. I was like, ‘Oh, boy, he’s going in. He’s going deep.’”
Underwood said when he finally saw Cage in character for the first time, he knew the Face/Off star had “nailed” the role. “I was very excited as an actor because I saw the choices [Nic] was making,” Underwood gushed. “And that’s one thing that’s synonymous with Nic Cage, is that it’s going to be bold and broad and courageous. Courageous choices, which I really respect.”
The pair finally came face to face at the premiere earlier this month, where Underwood said he was able to praise Cage in person for his “phenomenal” performance. “[I told him] how incredible he was,” Underwood told Us, noting that Cage was “just so magnanimous” and “warm” in his response.
While Cage is undeniably a master at his craft, Underwood’s own Longlegs performance is also deserving of praise. The third act sees Underwood’s character possessed by the devil — or a doll, depending on how you look at it — and shooting his own wife before being shot himself by Lee. Those final moments, Underwood told Us, were the hardest to film, but also the most thrilling.
“It’s exciting because you’re dealing with different colors, different parts of the character,” Underwood gushed of getting to play a more complex Agent Carter. “You’re getting into a darker part of the character taking over.”
He also appreciated Perkins giving the character layers. “There’s the procedural aspect of the FBI agent, and then there’s the real life,” he explained. “When I first talked to Oz, he said, ‘We’ll see this character’s family life, his wife and his child, and he’s not just in the office being the boss.’ So I enjoyed that.”
Although a long time fan of the genre, Longlegs marked Underwood’s first horror film. Now, he’s ready for more, whether that be a Longlegs sequel — “We just don’t know,” he told Us of Carter’s fate after being shot in the shoulder — or taking on another massive franchise (he’d love to star in the next Saw, for any Hollywood execs reading this).
“The reason I’m a horror fan is because I love the thrill-seeking of it all,” he gushed. “Just like roller-coasters. And it’s almost like, ‘I dare you, can you scare me?’”
Longlegs certainly fulfills that promise. It’s already been dubbed one of the scariest films of the past decade. Underwood, for his part, credits its success to Perkins’ tragic — and certainly ominous — ending.
“I think the reason people say that this movie is unsettling is because the message, in my interpretation, is evil exists and evil persists. So does good,” he explained. “This is a classic battle of good and evil. Maika Monroe’s character being the good, of course, and Nic Cage’s being the evil. But it’s very clear at the end, the final moment, that evil does persist.”
Longlegs is in theaters now.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
