If you’re not worth a laughing stock, you’re not worth much, goes the saying. In action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (A talent in solid gold), Nicolas Cage demonstrates this by taking his own role. Or, finally, a fictitious version of himself sticking more or less to the image that we have of him. Against the backdrop of a spy tale, the actor pokes fun at his sometimes disconcerting professional choices of the past few years, while portraying himself as a guy focused on himself, but irresistible nonetheless. Back on a satirical process to which the stars have every interest in resorting.
As Aisha Harris and Chris Wade explain in a 2013 essay in the magazine Slate, the practice is not new. “Think of Buster Keaton and Cecil B. Demille in Sunset Blvd.. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that it became a proven cinematographic process. Its rise partly coincided with the advent of mainstream tabloids — Star was founded in 1974, Us Weekly in 1977 — which helped erase the distance that once existed between Hollywood stars and their fans. We knew little about these stars beyond what studio publicists chose to divulge. Today, we often know all about their love life and their personal stories. In this new world, playing your own role has become a convenient way to manipulate your public image. »
In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a judiciously presumptuous title, we meet Nicolas Cage in full hunt for the role, auditioning in an impromptu way for the benefit of a speechless director. His career is floundering. “You have turned too much into anything,” reproaches his agent. “I am an actor: I play! It’s my job ! retorts Cage who, bitter, decides to retire before finding himself embroiled in a preposterous adventure to which we will come back critically next week.
Be that as it may, the abandon with which the Best Actor Oscar winner for Leaving Las Vegas (Farewell Las Vegas) agrees to pass for a self-confident egocentric until the stupidity proves to be in line with the approach usually favored by stars who parody themselves.
Score points
Indeed, with the notable exception of Being John Malkovich (Inside John Malkovich’s Head), unbridled fantasy that has pushed back the limits in this field, there are mainly two schools of autoparody: we opt for an amplified iteration of the self, like Bill Murray as an endearing oddball in zombielandor, conversely, we offer the antithesis of his public image, like Keanu Reeves as an unbearable poseur in Always Be my Maybe (Maybe forever). It is this second path that is evident in the very meta This Is the End (It is the end), where Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, Channing Tatum, etc., compete in detestability (it is now permissible to wonder if James Franco really played).
Regardless, the goal remains the same, as Harris and Wade further explain in Slate “It usually comes down to satirizing Hollywood by making fun of your own vanity or your willingness to sell your soul. In Jay and Silent Bob Strike BackBen Affleck and Matt Damon are working on Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season, the sequel to their Oscar-winning drama. Just before filming a scene, Damon whispers, “Think about the paycheck.” »
Here, the two actors show, on the one hand, that they are beautiful players and, on the other hand, that they do not take themselves seriously. But there is more to this process.
“The 1992 movie The Player, by Robert Altman, incorporates several celebrities playing themselves. Halfway through, a producer played by Tim Robbins is offered a script written for unknown performers […] At the end of The Playerwe see Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis in the final cut of this film as a commentary on how art becomes commerce in Hollywood […] By acknowledging their participation in this process, Roberts and Willis score a few points with a cynical audience. »
These “scored points” can, for the account, translate into significant business benefits. In a recent article from GuardianAnn Lee evokes an eloquent scenario.
“An actor playing himself in a film also opens the door to reinvention. Take Neil Patrick Harris, who appears as Cage’s agent in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Before playing in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castlehe was best known for his role as the perfect little medical prodigy Doogie Howser in the sitcom American. His performance as a satirical version of himself in the comedy “poteuse” and its two sequels reinvigorated his career. Playing a repulsive being with a predilection for large amounts of cocaine and strippers allowed him to move into more adult roles. »
And the author to recall that the actor won one of the main roles shortly after, that of an unrepentant heartthrob, in the series How I Met Your Mother.
Across the Atlantic
Obviously, American cinema does not have a monopoly on the process. In France, the country that gave us the jubilant series in 2015 Ten percent (call my agent in Quebec) and Tirednessby and with Michel Blanc, he has been a hit since 1994. Bringing together an appreciable part of the hexagonal cinematographic gratin, the film Playersby Bertrand Blier, is worth a look, although we may prefer The actresses ballby Maïwenn.
Without forgetting, from Belgium, JCVD, where Jean-Claude Van Damme plays it (or not) fallen star. On both sides of the Atlantic, people enjoy scratching the myths.
Why this propensity among stars to ridicule themselves, often portraying themselves, like Nicolas Cage, as finished narcissistic stars? If we are to believe Oscar Wilde, imitation would be the most sincere form of flattery… However, by “pastichantizing” themselves with faults so enormous that they cannot be taken seriously, the stars don’t they basically celebrate their own greatness? Whether magnifying or distorting, a mirror remains a mirror.