Dream Scenario | Deadline Studio at TIFF - video Dailymotion

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00:00 I'm Christopher Borgli, I'm the writer/director of the movie.

00:09 It's a film about a, let's say, average person, a professor and a father and a husband of

00:19 somewhere in the USA suburb who suddenly becomes famous from appearing in people's dreams.

00:27 And it kind of turns his life upside down.

00:30 I'm Nicholas Cage, I play Paul Matthews, an academic professor of behavioral science.

00:36 And he's going through a crisis, a catharsis, where inexplicably people just overnight start

00:45 dreaming about him around the world.

00:48 And it's, to put it lightly, a huge adjustment.

00:52 And it has tremendous effects on his personal life, his family life, his professional life.

00:58 The genesis of the story was, there's a couple of professors that I read about that had these,

01:09 I guess, cancellations happen.

01:12 And they went on podcasts, they talked about it.

01:15 And in multiple occasions, they framed it as crimes that happen in the minds of other

01:22 people, fabricated in their minds.

01:25 And they didn't see that they were guilty of anything wrong.

01:28 And I thought that was an interesting idea of what if something actually just happened

01:32 in someone's head and not in reality, and how that would play out.

01:36 And that was kind of the first little seed of inspiration.

01:41 I felt in the name of thespis that I had the life experience to play Paul Matthews.

01:50 You know, what happened to me is so-called Nick Cage with the internet.

01:55 Nothing could have prepared me.

01:57 There was no reference point to experience this memification that occurred with one person's

02:06 compiling of a montage of sequences, cherry picking different episodes of meltdowns that

02:12 I had in various movies, calling it Nicholas Cage loses his shit.

02:17 And then it went viral around the world overnight.

02:19 And I think I was maybe the first actor that experienced anything like that.

02:24 It was confusing, it was irritating, it was stimulating, it was confounding.

02:28 I didn't know what to do with it.

02:29 No matter what I tried to do, legally, whatever, I couldn't stop it.

02:33 And it kept growing, it kept multiplying exponentially.

02:39 And I thought, well, I got to put those feelings somewhere.

02:43 And I read this script and I was like, holy shit, I can play this part.

02:46 You know, I know what this guy feels like.

02:49 Even to the point of the stalker in my house.

02:52 It wasn't a knife, it was a fudgesicle.

02:53 I know that gets a lot of laughs, but it was scary, man.

02:56 I mean, that happened to me.

02:58 So when it happened to Paul Matthews, I met with Christopher and we talked about these

03:03 different things.

03:04 I said, I think I can, no acting, please.

03:08 And we very carefully created a look so it wouldn't be so-called Nick Cage, it would

03:13 be Paul Matthews, which helped because it makes it even more alarming that this person

03:17 who has no real interest, Paul Matthews, in media, in having a spotlight put on him.

03:24 He's a quiet man.

03:26 He's a good professor.

03:27 He's an academic.

03:28 He just wants a little recognition for his work.

03:31 We both grew up with professors.

03:33 My father was a professor.

03:34 So I also understood the pressures of academia.

03:37 I saw my dad go through it.

03:38 So I thought everything was aligned in such a way where I could play it authentically.

03:43 Yeah, I mean, it was about a character who really blends in, that doesn't stand out.

03:50 And that person suddenly becoming like on everyone's minds is just kind of a comedic

03:57 effect and very unexpected.

04:01 And I do remember thinking about how my father would navigate viral fame and how he would

04:09 fumble it and not be able to understand the dynamics.

04:14 And there was just so much comedy coming from imagining my father trying to navigate this

04:24 very modern way of getting famous.

04:26 Like, nowadays, like, yeah, you can get-- it seems like you can get famous for sort

04:30 of anything, like the he's not real plain lady.

04:35 It's like there's a new one every week, you know?

04:41 So this is just a slightly more cinematic and metaphysical version of something that

04:48 happens every day.

04:50 We never went for laughs for laugh's sake.

04:53 It was all situation relevant.

04:55 It was all organic to the scene.

04:57 If there is laughter, it was designed very carefully to not be plain for laughs.

05:03 It's a satire that sort of emerges of its own.

05:07 I do think the picture is extremely relevant.

05:11 I think it's totally timely to what's happening now.

05:16 And he's right.

05:17 Anyone can become famous overnight now, the way information is deployed.

05:21 It just-- when it happened to me, it was brand new.

05:24 Now it's happening to other actors.

05:26 It's happening to just average folk who are trying to mind their own business.

05:31 He said something funny about the man who trips in the supermarket.

05:33 He's now the trippy supermarket-- tripping supermarket.

05:36 Man, I mean, it can happen to all of us.

05:39 So I'm not alone.

05:42 People are actively corning it now.

05:44 You know, easily have a pretty face, drink a bottle of tequila, make a scene on a red

05:48 carpet, you are famous.

05:50 It had nothing to do with craft, you know?

05:52 But the fact that it's happening to a man, Paul Matthews, who doesn't want it, you know,

05:57 is what makes it somewhat tragic.

06:00 See Christopher-- and he's not going to like me saying this-- but it's a-- I met him at

06:05 a coffee shop when we first met.

06:07 And I knew within maybe 20 minutes-- it's a thrilling, intimidating experience when

06:15 you meet somebody who's half your age and quite as smart as you.

06:17 And I'm saying that-- I don't think I'm stupid.

06:19 But I knew that this man is highly, highly intelligent.

06:24 And I said to myself, well, this is the sort of director that I'm going to say, here's

06:29 the remote control.

06:30 I'm your car.

06:31 You push the buttons.

06:32 I'm going to go wherever you want, because this is your baby, and I believe in it.

06:35 And that's what we did.

06:36 That's pretty much what my experience was.

06:38 Yeah, I mean, and to me, I didn't even dare to dream having Nicolas Cage play in my movie,

06:47 or our movie now.

06:50 So that was just a mind-blowing experience for me.

06:56 And the way that Nick embodied this character and made him so much more exciting and watchable

07:06 than he was on paper, and made him uniquely his own, now I can't imagine the movie without

07:16 Nick.

07:17 It's like he created Paul Matthews, I think.

07:22 With Christopher.

07:23 I mean, I was fitting in his vision, which to me is a thousand-layer cake.

07:28 I mean, I don't use the word "masterpiece" lightly.

07:31 It doesn't happen often.

07:33 And the fact that it's his sophomore effort, I think it happened here.

07:37 What do I mean by "masterpiece"?

07:38 When a person is so knowledgeable of their craft that they can create something where

07:45 nothing needs to be added, taken away, or altered.

07:48 It doesn't happen often.

07:50 Charles Lawton did it in his first movie with Naya the Hunter.

07:54 I'm going to invoke the name of Orson Welles right off the get-go with Citizen Kane.

07:58 It doesn't happen often, but Christopher knew exactly what he wanted, and he created it.

08:03 And I don't think anything needs to be added, taken away, or altered.

08:06 [music]

08:09 [MUSIC]

Dream Scenario | Deadline Studio at TIFF

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