Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a sorcerer over 1000 years old, following in the tradition of the great Magician Merlin for the forces of good. Now, in modern day New York City, Balthazar fights an evil sorcerer Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina) and his henchmen, and henchwoman, including Drake Stone ( Toby Kebbell), a “punked-out” stage illusionist, an ancient Chinese sorcerer, Sun Lok ( Gregory Woo), and a real witch , Abigail Williams (Nicole Ehinger), from 17th Century Salem, Massachusetts. Yes, that Salem, Mass.
What Balthazar needs is some help. He’s been searching for his Apprentice throughout time and has finally found him in a nerdy physics college student, Dave Stutler ( Jay Baruchel), who is a descendent of Merlin’s. Throw in a love interest for the young apprentice, Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer), as well as a fire breathing dragon, car chases and magical fights with plasma bolts all over the streets of New York.
There is also a modern day version of the famous magic gone wild, water transporting brooms from Walt Disney’s classic Fantasia. As if there was a creature in the world who, suddenly empowered with the ability to do magic, couldn’t resist the temptation at playing with those powers. Especially, if you could do such mundane things as cleaning your room using magic. Not me. I’ve got a whole house I could use some magical help with.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is directed by Jon Turteltaub and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Nicolas Cage for Walt Disney Pictures. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice opens on July 14th.
QUESTION: What challenges did you have making this movie?
TURTELTAUB: Well, particularly with this movie, the amount of special effects made it very difficult. It was the first movie, I think, for all of us with this amount of special effects. So you have to be much more prepared and know exactly what you want, because you have to be very specific with the special effects. And then actors have to act…pretending to be chased by giant dragons or scary monsters without there actually being a dragon or a scary monster there. So you have to do a lot of planning and prepare yourself.
Q: With all the emphasis now on 3-D, why did you choose not to make it 3-D?
TURTELTAUB: Do you want the honest answer? Are we allowed to do that in this day and age? We went to Disney two and a half years ago…two years ago, and said this is a perfect 3-D movie, and they said, “No, that’s silly. Nobody’s doing 3-D and it’s a waste of money.” True story. (Everyone laughing.)
Q: Nicolas, did you have to work doing green screen a lot?
CAGE: Yes, but well, acting is imagination. It’s acting, that’s what it’s all about. I actually enjoy working with green screen because I can imagine all that stuff happening. I really cut my teeth on a movie I made called Adaptation where I had to imagine four-page dialogue scenes with my twin brother who was nothing more than a tennis ball on a gaffe stand, so I was really up for it. But I do understand sometimes when actors say there’s no one to talk to, or you can’t react to it, there’s truth in that. But for me, I’ve always enjoyed green screen and blue screen.
Q: For the Drake Stone character, [a punked-out illusionist/sorcerer], did you fashion it with Criss Angel in mind?
TURTELTAUB: But he passed…that’s a joke. We didn’t actually offer it to Criss Angel. Without getting into too much trouble, we wanted to mock what magic has become in our day and age. Magic has a spiritual element and is considered very important and of value, and magicians have always been a little bit silly. So if you’re going to portray a modern day magician, there’s got to be a little silliness, I would say. And even a counter magician like David Blaine, it can get silly after a while. That’s when we turned to Toby [Kebbell] who created somebody.
Q: This question is for Jay. You’re filling some rather big shoes here, the legacy of Mickey Mouse and the legacy of Merlin. What is more difficult, filling Mickey’s shoes or the old man Merlin’s shoes?
BARUCHEL: Mickey – and it’s not shoes, it’s gloves. No, there’s a gravity to it; it’s not lost on me. Like when we were shooting the sorcerer sequence, the famous Fantasia sequence, doing our version of it, where the mops come to life, every day I came to work and I was like, “You reeeeally can’t mess this up.” Worst-case scenario, anytime someone else sees the cartoon Fantasia, I will be irrevocably connected to – “That punk kid,’ or ‘How terrible that was…”
This sounds cheesy but I felt like the ghost of my grandparents were kind of watching me. When you’re paying homage to one of the more iconic sequences in film history, it’s like right up there with those people making out on the beach in From Here to Eternity. It’s a big one. I tried my best to fulfill everything I had to do. Do everything I had to do, in terms of paying homage to the character and the sequence, whilst looking for moments I could maybe do my own thing with. I was scared sh-tless.
Q: Can you talk about the curio shop in Greenwich Village that Balthazar runs.
TURTELTAUB: We spent a lot of time looking at shops in the Village, and going through [there], and it was a set. We built the whole thing because most stores don’t want you to go and set them on fire. The trick to that set is not just the set, but the set dressing, and filling it with that much stuff. They kept coming in and I kept saying, “More, more, more stuff.” They said, “There aren’t a lot more real crazy, weird things around out there. You want blouses, we can get you 8,000, but bear heads are harder to find.” (Everyone laughing.)
Q: And what about the magic Nic brings to the character of Balthazar?
TURTELTAUB: Nic is a powerful presence as a person. Nic has an intensity and there’s something very strong and masculine about Nic that you feel when you’re around him. It was really important that this sorcerer be daunting and an intimidating figure. I think we always feel safest around the dangerous person who’s on your side more than the nice good person who’s on your side. And Nic really is able to bring all that without losing that sensitivity and heart…and a sense of goodness, because that’s Nic. I think most actors do this, they draw on the elements in themselves that feel right for that character, and then pick the spots to push a little more.
Q: We understand that Nicolas, you and Jon went to Beverly Hills High together. How have you changed since then? Did you have any plans for this back then?
CAGE: Well, first of all, let it be known that Jon Turteltaub is a really, really good actor. We were in the Beverly Hills High School drama department together, and we both auditioned for the lead in Our Town and he got the lead. He beat me out and I got to play Constable Warren, which was two lines of dialogue. And he will never let me forget it!
TURTELTAUB: Warren is W-A-R-R-E-N. (Laughing.)
CAGE: But what’s interesting about this, a little of the magic of it, is that when the idea was developed and created to do Sorcerer’s Apprentice, I wanted Jon to direct the movie. And there was a play happening at Beverly Hills High School and my son was in it, and so there we were in the old seats and the old drama department theater, watching this Inherit the Wind production. Then we’re talking about doing Sorcerer’s Apprentice together, so it came full circle. The whole movie has been like that. It’s had that magical quality, which is amazing since the movie is about magic.
Q: Nicolas, for this film you’re not only acting, but producing as well. Which part of the project are you attracted to more?
CAGE: The reason this all happened for me was that I had an interest in Arthurian mythology and the Grail cycle and particularly ancient England. I was trying to find a way to start making a movie that resonated that in some way. At the same time, I wanted to make family movies that would entertain parents and their children. Give them both something to look forward to…to congregate together, and smile together. I think that’s one of the better ways I can apply myself as an actor. So it made sense to me that if I could do a character that relied on magic and not bullets. I could entertain the family.
And Jon, if you really look at his career carefully, has always made positive movies that never resorted to gratuitous violence or gunplay. And that is really hard to do in Hollywood, to pull that off. That’s his vision and he’s done it. He’s made people happy and it’s a very positive vision. So I knew he was the right director for it because of our experience together with National Treasure. And I’ve made seven movies with Jerry [Bruckheimer] and he always entertains the world. Nobody can make a movie as exciting as Jerry Bruckheimer. You know when it’s one of his movies, that it’s going to have lots of chrome and gloss. It’s going to be sexy and it’s going to be big and fun. So he put it on a fast track, and that’s how it happened.
Q: Jay, what challenges did you experience working with such a big and experienced actor like Nicolas Cage? And Nicolas, how many challenges did you experience from working with younger actors?
CAGE: First of all, I want to say that I love working with younger actors because they always come into the game full of energy and ideas that challenge me and keep me learning and stimulated. But Jay is somebody, in my opinion, who subscribes to what I call jazz-style acting. He’s not afraid to go off the page and improvise and throw something at you. So I could riff with him, and some accidents would happen where we would get to a more real truth, and we kept doing that the whole time. The other thing I want to say about Jay is, I’ve always believed that the greatest actors are the ones that have the voices that are imitable. My heroes are Bogart, Eastwood, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson. Well, Jay’s got a voice. And that’s hard to have. And when you see How to Train Your Dragon, it just jumps off that [voice]. He gets in your head. He’s going to be around forever.
BARUCHEL: Thanks a lot, man. For me, you can approach a situation like that one of two ways. When you work with someone who’s close to hero status for you, it’ll either make you wilt in the presence of greatness and then you lose it all, or it makes you like, “Now I’m playing it with the guys I got into it for. They made me become an actor and now I have my chance. I’d better bring my A-game as hard as I possibly can.” And that’s what it was with him. I got to show up on set every day and get to work and have conversations with this guy, who I’ve watched since I was a little kid. I’ve just been a huge fan and I’m in awe of everything about him. And I didn’t want to blow it. It made me want to work as hard as I possibly could and just to be as good as he is.
Q: You’re making one of the biggest movies in movie history[referring to ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence in Fantasia with Mickey and the magical brooms]. What is that like? And how do you feel about it?
TURTLETAUB: I think the big fear comes from fear of all of you, actually. I don’t think we go into it worried that the audience will be too judgmental of our place in movie history; they just want us to make a really good movie. But the way the movie is going to be talked about by the press, or critics, you folks, that’s where we have to be careful. Because you’re also going to tell the public whether we succeeded or didn’t. So that was always in our minds, which meant that we had to make, at worst, that section of the movie had to be done in a very modern context. But most important, I think to all of us is that it had to feel like it’s part of the movie. That it affected the story and it related to the characters. That it wasn’t just a little scene on its own, that we could have just cut it out. So that was really the hardest part of it.
BARUCHEL: Anytime you’re referencing or paying homage to something that has meant a lot to a lot of people for many generations, you’ve got to approach it with a degree of reverence. I’d like to say that we have a really great seed to start from, because the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sequence in Fantasia is the seed to our oak tree, and you can pick a lot worse seeds to start from. If we failed, it would have been a big, big, big mess, because Sorcerer’s Apprentice is two words that have meant a lot to a lot of people for a long time. Hopefully we’ve given them what they’re used to, and then some.
Q: Can you talk about the magical fight scenes…of the choreography behind it?
CAGE: In terms of the choreography, I remember early on we were talking about Balthazar wearing these two bracelets. And whenever he made magic, he’d put the two bracelets together, kind of like Sinbad pulling his belt, and then things would magically happen. But I really felt that it was important for my character to use his hands, like a conductor, like magic is coming out of the hands. That’s where Michael Kaplan (Costume Designer) so brilliantly offered the idea of all the rings on each finger and using the power ring, as opposed to the bracelet. So that was always present, on my mind, to use that kind of choreography, like a conductor.
BARUCHEL: For me, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t practiced shooting energy out of my hands my entire life. It’s all Akira, or Street Fighter 2, or the end of Return of the Jedi. I’ve been groomed for this, you know, and I just had to prevent myself from saying, ‘Hadouken!’ which took a lot of effort. (Everyone laughs at his enthusiasm.)
Q: With regard to the economy…every studio is fighting for an audience, what type of approach did you have when you first started getting into this film? Did you feel constant pressure from films like Avatar, or did you just want to make a good movie?
CAGE: I just want to make a good movie. I really felt the movie gods were with us on this one, specifically Walt Disney. I think he would have been happy with this. I was just having faith in that. I wasn’t thinking too much about the size or how it would connect, it was just more about doing the best we could do and trying to channel the spirit of Walt Disney and Fantasia.
Q: Nicolas, what would you say is the most magical moment in the movie?
CAGE: There were many magical moments throughout the whole film. One of the more interesting things that comes to mind is Nikola Tesla, and that coincidentally, we wrapped the movie on his birthday.
BARUCHEL: Seriously? How weird.
CAGE: And coincidentally, I found out that the day he died is the same day I was born. And so with that in mind, I went to stay in Nikola Tesla’s room at the New Yorker Hotel, to try to just see if I could call up the spirits, figuratively speaking, and see what came to me. And then I was in the room and nothing really happened, but something hit the window and I think it might have been a pigeon. I read a little bit about Tesla later and I found out those were his friends. He loved pigeons. He really cared about them, he would take care of them. That was it for him – his pigeons and his science. So I thought, “Okay, that’s the gift. I’m going to try to find a way to put a pigeon in the movie. I’m going to fix his leg and it’s for you, Nikola Tesla.”
TURTLETAUB: To go even one step further, we were shooting at Bryant Park, which is the building that Toby’s apartment is in. We were there a lot and as we’re pulling in our first day, I think it’s 40th St., it’s actually Nikola Tesla Way. And we were like, “This is getting weird.”
CAGE: And he’s all over the movie, as you know. Very interesting.
Q: They’re are some religious supporters who have taken Harry Potter to task for being about witchcraft. And in this movie there are cult symbols and raising the dead. Could this be, to borrow the Tesla reference, a lightning rod for that kind of criticism? Was that a concern?
CAGE: No. This is a fantasy movie. This is a movie that’s designed to make kids smile and be happy, and it’s based on one of the great short animated elements to the original Fantasia. That’s it. That’s what we were going for.
BARUCHEL: And alchemy predates Christian fundamentalism.
CAGE: In any event, for me, it was almost also something I wanted to do as an homage to teachers in general…to sing an ode to teachers, to sing their praises. These people that are social workers, that are devoted to expanding young people’s mind, and who get paid nothing. They don’t care about that, about money, they just want to educate people. That’s my father. So it was sort of my gift to him.
Q: But the word occult just means ‘hidden’.
CAGE: Yes, exactly right, and I didn’t answer the question. Occult means hidden, it doesn’t mean witchcraft. It means invisible. In the Victorian era, you would use that word randomly, even in science experiments. But what I’m trying to point out is that this isn’t a witchcraft movie.
Q: Over the years you’ve talked about your passion for things normally hidden such as investigating Tesla and staying in his room. What is the furthest you’ve gone to satisfy yourself in a role you’ve done?
CAGE: I think that story I shared with you previously, I think is the furthest I’ve gone, and I’m happy with the results. But I just want to say one other thing, because we’ve seem to gone on a tangent that’s interesting about beliefs and whatnot. Personally, I think anyone can believe whatever they want to believe. That’s your right. We also believe in Amnesty International. You have the right to believe whatever you want. So even though I say I didn’t come at this movie as a witchcraft movie, if that’s what gets you through the night, so be it. I’m not here to judge anybody.
Q: If you had the ability to do magic one time, what would you do?
CAGE: I would just keep doing what we’ve been doing. I just want to keep making movies that hopefully makes some kids smile.
BARUCHEL: I’d blow something up with my hands.
TURTLETAUB: I’d see through ladies’ clothes.