Passing the torch from one explorer to another

It had to happen. It’s the way things go when they go the way they should: A young, edgy, adventurous actor has a role in mind -- something he’s been dying to do. And one day, the actor, who has aged, confronts the role, which hasn’t, and if he has any sense of himself -- and any taste at all -- knows it’s time to let it go.

Or, if you’re Nicolas Cage, time to take the director’s chair and give a younger, promising actor -- in this case, James Franco -- a shot.

Sitting at the patio restaurant at the Avalon Hotel in Los Angeles, Cage is way better-looking in person than on screen. Polite, thoughtful, beautifully turned out in a sport jacket and slacks. He listens. He lights other people’s cigarettes. His hair is slightly thinning on top. (Much has been made of Cage’s thinning hair; in person, it adds a note of masculine urbanity that is probably the only note he hasn’t struck with his acting jobs.) He exudes earnestness and sincerity.

Which, for a snarky reporter, is like chum to a shark. In this Age of Irony, however, Cage’s sincerity is a refreshing alternative to the usual cover-yourself blather that is often the main course in these discussions.

Franco is not as good-looking in person as he is in movies. And that’s a good thing, too. Franco has to work hard not to read as a full-lipped, come-hither Calvin Klein model. In real life, he’s rougher around the edges, hinting at a maturity that, if he lives up to his promise, could encompass a whole spectrum of opportunities -- even ugly people.

At this moment, both actors are at work promoting “Sonny,” Cage’s directorial debut, which stars Franco in the title role as a Bourbon Street brothel-reared escort who returns home from the Army to try to break free of “the life.” Brenda Blethyn plays his mother, Jewel, a madam and also his pimp, who is dead set against his breaking free. Mena Suvari is a female prostitute Jewel has recruited and installed in Sonny’s old room. Brenda Vaccaro plays one of Sonny’s socialite clients and Harry Dean Stanton does a poignant turn as Jewel’s beau. Whenever possible, Cage used local actors in supporting roles, and contented himself with playing a gay pimp with a taste for cocaine and fashion in the Monte Rock vein. (Cage got to make use of a retina-scorching yellow jacket that once belonged to Liberace.) Set in New Orleans and shot on a shoestring (Cage used his home there for interiors), “Sonny” is a sympathetic look at a slice of life most Americans come into contact with only peripherally.

It was a script Hollywood was aware of only peripherally for many years. Cage himself had the script for 15.

“Richard Gere had passed on it to do ‘American Gigolo,’ ” he says. “I found myself very emotionally connected to it and compelled by it and I wanted to play the part myself, but I couldn’t find a director to commit to it. Barbet Schroeder came close but decided to do ‘Barfly’ instead, and the script went back on the shelf.

“The subject matter wasn’t the sort of thing studios were gravitating toward” -- which may be the understatement of the year for Hollywood in the ‘80s -- “even though The Times called it one of the Top 10 Never Produced Scripts” in 1992.

“I forgot about it and moved on. I had thought about directing something actor-driven and about family, and one night I was in bed and the light went off: ‘I wonder where that script is?’ ”

The market had most definitely changed as well, thanks to the explosion of interest (and dollars) in extra-studio filmmaking, and an increasingly sophisticated public willing to consider thornier subject matter.

Still, no one was exactly throwing money at him, Cage says. “Most people didn’t want to bite or put the money into it, but Paul Brooks had worked with me [as a producer] on ‘Shadow of the Vampire.’ ‘Big Fat Greek Wedding’ notwithstanding, he wasn’t afraid to take a chance on something bold and unconventional.” Which is also why, Franco says, he jumped at the chance to work with Cage. “From what I had heard, I knew he wouldn’t be afraid to try things.”

Comfort levels

For certain, Cage has never been afraid to try things -- sometimes to great acclaim, other times to ridicule. He seems comfortable with that.

If Franco’s answers are any indication, he is still warming up to the notion of public exposure. He is painstaking, complete, definitive in his answers.

When asked what appealed to him about the project, he answers: “Uhhm, the role had tremendous dramatic possibilities, very eccentric kind of role annnnd, he lives in a world the script depicts in a way we haven’t seen.

“I knew Nic was doing it, and some of my favorite roles of his were men who had a very difficult time integrating into the normal world for one reason or another. And because he had considered playing the role himself ... I figured he’d have great insight into it.”

Cage admits he had been unaware of Franco’s previous work -- “Spider-Man,” “City by the Sea” and the cable movie “Dean” -- but warmed up to him immediately.

“I wanted the person I met in my office. I had heard about James and I thought his face told a story. He was very enthusiastic. I was very impressed by the emotion that was at his fingertips. He can turn on a dime and get to this very intense, emotional, vulnerable and, at the same time, dangerous place.”

No question, Franco is asked to embody an explosive mix of rage and longing when Sonny’s naivete about “squares” is shattered. It’s dangerous territory for any actor and a minor miscalculation -- in just one scene -- can send a promising young actor, or even a veteran, straight to the “Mommy Dearest” Camp Hall of Fame.

Cage was confident that wouldn’t happen. “I never wanted to block anything James was working on or calm him down. I tried to cultivate a set where actors would feel safe with me to explore. I think being an actor is a very vulnerable thing; you’re asked to bare your soul in front of people. It was a set where the people working with us would respect what James was doing.

“James would come in and I would let him do whatever he wanted in the first four takes. And then I had some ideas I wanted to try. I certainly like extreme situations, I like to dance there and he’s able to go there. And he would come in with ideas and he was right. I trusted him.”

Originally set in the ‘60s in Lafayette, La., the script by John Carlen was updated to 1981 and the action moved to New Orleans. (A legal dispute with another writer over authorship was settled, and the Writers Guild awarded Carlen sole credit.)

Cage’s rationale for the changes was that “I didn’t know the ‘60s. I knew the ‘80s and it was my time.” As for moving the action to New Orleans: “There’s a buzz to the city, and the music is wafting out on the street 24 hours a day. There’s so much to do indoors, so when it goes outside I want there to be a buzz to it, and New Orleans is like a character unto itself. And I thought, ‘How interesting if a character grew up on Bourbon Street. What would that do to him and his family?’ ” For his part, Franco, who grew up in an artistic family in Palo Alto, was a stranger to being “turned out,” so he and Cage set to work meeting the Crescent City’s male sex workers.

“There were all types, and people were into it for all different reasons,” Franco says. “Some felt it was a chosen lifestyle. Some were trapped in this business and tried to leave but wouldn’t make a fraction of the money, and with Sonny it was emotional reasons as well.”

“It was interesting seeing the different dynamics,” adds Cage. “It was almost like therapy. Figuring out what one person might need to give them pleasure and passion.... James and I came to the idea of him being able to clock what a woman’s fantasy might be. The perception wasn’t really seen as something to hurt, but to give some relief or aid or help in their clients’ loneliness.”

Cage shies away from drawing any moral conclusions about this subject matter -- on the record or in the movie.

“I was trying to present something without judgment and let the situation unfold in a way that seemed truthful, rather than moral. These are people, and they have feelings and emotions, thoughts, and they can be hurt just like anyone else. I really think it’s up to people’s interpretation. Let them be the judge. I don’t want to impinge on anyone’s secret discoveries; anyone’s interpretation is valid. The story has its own life now.

“I was at a screening, and there was this elderly couple in front of me and the man was like ‘Oh, my God! What is he doing?’ and the woman was like ‘Ssssshhhh! It’s her fantasy, it’s her fantasy.’ And she got it in that regard and I thought that was cool.”

Both actors have an agenda. For Franco, “it’s my big development period, though that may never change.” On the other hand, Cage, at 40, is looking for his second creative wind.

“I’m trying to go through something of a renaissance in my work, not be comfortable with what I do, stay on the high wire, if I fall that’s OK. If I can do something without judgment and people can make their own conclusions. I hope I can keep doing that, take the chances I want to take, and learn and grow.”