Upamanyu Biswas
One of the key highlights in the Osgood Perkins-directed horror film ‘Longlegs,‘ is the titular villain’s visceral appearance, which has an almost alien quality to it. With Nicolas Cage bringing the demented character to life, the actor’s face seems unrecognizable from his real-life persona owing to the creepy, ghost-like complexion of Longlegs. The film elevates the horror further by portraying the character in uncanny angles that detach him from reality and make him seem like a force of nature that exists out of people’s perception of what is expected. Thus, owing to Cage’s stark transformation and the film’s effective camerawork, the character of Longlegs feels doubly more insane and haunting as he slithers under the viewer’s skin! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Nicolas Cage’s Terrifying Look in Longlegs is a Blend of Stellar Performance and Special Effects
‘Longlegs’ has a very sparse approach when it comes to Nicolas Cage’s appearances in the film. Although his presence is felt throughout the narrative, the character of Longlegs is often shrouded in mystery, even when he is on screen. A combination of deliberate camera positioning and an unhinged performance from Cage keeps him at arm’s length while also sinking deeper into the psyche of the characters inhabiting the story. The few times the character appears unimpeded by any intentional cutaways or misleading framing, there is an otherworldly quality to his look that is divorced from the actor’s real-life appearance. The filmmakers went about achieving it by applying prosthetic makeup to his face.
According to makeup department head Felix Fox, Nicolas Cage’s look would take almost two and a half hours to complete every morning during production. He applied silicone prosthetics to different parts of Cage’s face, specifically his cheeks, lips, forehead, chin, and nose. It was an essential part of making the plumpness and disfigurement of his face feel authentic as it needed to have an almost plastic surgery gone wrong look. In an interview with IndieWire, writer and director Osgood Perkins explained, “The idea was that he’d been busted by shitty plastic surgery. And that’s about the mask, it’s the masked killer, it’s a genre imperative, whether it’s Michael Myers [‘Halloween’] or Jason [‘Friday the 13th’], or ‘Black Phone.'”
Nicolas Cage Drew Inspiration From His Mother For a Role He Describes as Androgynous
Another aspect of the character’s striking look and tone is his deathly whiteness, which is akin to a ghost walking among the living. He can even be seen mumbling to himself like a troubled soul in certain scenes. Interestingly, the white makeup was something Cage picked up from an early memory of his mother. He told Entertainment Weekly, “My mom put on Noxzema cold cream. I was 2 years old, and I opened the bathroom door [to see] what she was doing. For no reason, she turned her face really fast and stared at me after [putting on] the cold cream. The whiteness of the cold cream just really spooked me.” The actor admitted that the character had a strange connection to the color white that is inexplicable beyond the confines of his own mind.
Cage also sees the titular villain as an androgynous entity, both in appearance and performance. “I see Longlegs as neither male nor female,” he said. “The character is very androgynous, and I often thought of, believe it or not, the hermaphrodite in the [Federico] Fellini movie Juliet and the Spirits. When the prophet was talking, she was saying, ‘Do you find me beautiful?’ Oz came to the table and said, ‘Why don’t you plump your hair in this shot?’ I thought, ‘That’s fantastic, man. Let’s do that.’ And then I took it a little further and said, ‘Do you find me beautiful?’ He didn’t put that in the movie, but I wanted that. I wanted Longlegs to be a character that wanted to be perceived as very beautiful.”
Osgood Perkins also referred to the character as a trickster at heart who plays on several clown tropes. “It was having the idea for the character of Longlegs, knowing what he felt like, what he was about, how he operated,” the director told IGN. “This idea that there was a kind of shabby birthday clown, birthday performer type.” Considering the character’s connection to little children, it makes sense that there is a clown connection in his backstory and in the way he appears in front of the audience. Regardless, his look and startling mannerisms are sure to etch their way into people’s minds, making the effort to achieve the character’s disturbing appearance a worthwhile one.
Read More: Dolls in Longlegs, Explained: What Does the Doll Do? What is in the Brain Ball?
