There’s a scene in The Surfer, in which Nicolas Cage in the titular role rambles around a Western Australia carpark, delirious from days spent in the summer sun, barefoot and broken, babbling on about making dinner for his ex-wife – a feast of clams casino and spaghetti alla puttanesca.
“That just randomly came out,” said the film’s director, Lorcan Finnegan.
It’s one of many comedic moments in The Surfer that provide a platform for Cage to go classic crazy Cage. The film follows Cage as he returns to his childhood home, with hopes of buying the house he grew up in, and sharing the surf spot where it all started for him with his teenage son. However, there’s a group of angry locals – partially inspired by the infamous Lunada Bay Boys – who hinder Cage’s plans, and in the process, send him to the brink of his sanity.
For Tinseltown, which has notoriously botched portrayals of surfing and surf culture, the film is fairly accurate with its depiction of localism. Plus, it’s good fun. Get Cage on camera, and let ‘em rip.
So, ahead of The Surfer’s wide release on May 2nd, we spoke to Finnegan about the film – how Cage stayed in Taj Burrow’s house during shooting, the persistent threat of sharks, eat the rat, and more.
Dive in below.
Where did the inspiration for the film come from? Any real-life surf gangs?
The dudes in Lunada Bay, California were definitely an inspiration. Also, Thomas Martin, the writer, when he was in Sydney years ago, he saw two guys who were surfing, then getting dressed in suits. He assumed they were dentists or lawyers or something. Then, they started beating the shit out of each other right there on the beach. Really violently. That always stuck with him. Like, ‘what are these guys doing?’ Everyone is usually so chill, but there are these places…I was talking to a surfer in Senegal and he mentioned some localism there, too.
What’s your experience with surfing, if any?
Weirdly, I’ve never gone surfing in Ireland, even though the surf is pretty good. I’ve gone a few times in San Sebastian [Spain]. A friend of mine used to live there, so when I’d visit him, we’d go surfing. But I’m not very good. I’ve surfed, but I wouldn’t call myself a surfer. [Laughs.]
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Mainstream surf films have notoriously butchered surfing and surf culture. But this film is fairly accurate, especially when it comes to depicting localism. How’d you approach that authenticity?
The place we shot in – Yallingup, Western Australia – is an actual surf town. It’s got a few breaks that are quite famous. Nic actually stayed in Taj Burrow’s house. It overlooks the beach. That all kind of helped. We needed everyone to be on our side, so we could surf and shoot there. A lot of local surfers ended up working on the film as either cast, or extras, or helping with locations. It’s a fairly remote town. The owner of the local hotel is in the movie; loads of locals are in the film. So, I think that really helped.
Nic also did some lessons with a local surf teacher there, just to get back up to speed. He has surfed before. He actually surfed with Kelly Slater years ago. I think he got stuck, like, in a washing machine cycle. He didn’t love it. But he went out and got lessons, and about two hours in, he was standing up again. I have to say, though, he was shitting himself about the sharks. Very sharky area. We were tracking the sharks via an app while we were shooting.
Related: Nicolas Cage Goes Rat Sh*t Crazy in ‘The Surfer’ (Review)
Western Australia is such a raw, rugged, and beloved surfing destination. What drove you to set the film there?
The story itself could’ve been transposed to Portugal, or California, or South Africa…but we were both big fans of new wave Australian films. Like Wake in Fright, Long Weekend, Walkabout. They have a tradition of non-Australian filmmakers making Australian movies. We thought this was a great opportunity to make a film in Australia. It just felt like that location would fit nicely with the film. Then you tie it into the themes of the film – it’s all happening across Christmas, and Christmas in Australia is on the beach, and there’s this weird religious undercurrent.
We drove up and down that coast. It’s just massive. And that location ended up being perfect. The water has a beautiful crystalline, turquoise, dreamy quality to it. The waves are big, so they look good on camera, but they’re not so big that they’ll kill you if you’re not an amazing surfer. The carpark is right above it. It just matched the staging perfectly.
Related: Is Nicolas Cage’s “The Surfer” Good? Here Are the Reviews.
Stylistically, the film plays out like a psychedelic fever dream. Was that what were you going for?
It’s following this character, and the whole film is shot in this subjective, point-of-view style. We go through the film with Nic’s character. It’s his experience of the few days that he spends in this place. Part of that is, how do we make the audience feel like he’s feeling? Sound design, intense colors, these very long lenses with closeups on his face – it all makes it feel like his psyche is starting to crack. Then, the heat of the summer starts pounding down on him, we needed to create distortions and flames and whatnot.
How was it working with Nic Cage, and bearing witness to the classic Cage freakouts?
He came onboard pretty early, so we were able to work with him on the script a little bit in terms of little things he wanted to do. He’s got an amazing diction with his delivery. He can deliver long pieces of dialogue that’s very clear, but also short. Actors tend to be a little bit slower. Once we got on set, we started to notice a bit of the humor that’s in the film as well. And the weirdness. He definitely loves those aspects – drinking out of a puddle on the ground, eating raw bird eggs, all that stuff. Then, of course, the scene with the rat.
There’s a few lines that just randomly came out. He’d go into this shamanic headspace, and deliver these lines off the cuff. He gets injected with these drugs, and we shot it through a water tank to give it this vibe, and he says: “That’s a good one.” That was just something he came up with. And, “Eat the rat.” They’re these little gifts that he’ll put into a film if he’s having a good time. Then, they become these iconic pieces of dialogue.
What do you hope audiences walk away with from the film?
It’s been playing at film festivals, and I love hearing people’s interpretations. They can interpret the end of the film in certain ways. It can linger in their subconscious, and they can talk about it. You might want to rewatch it. I want a lot of people to see it, but it feels like maybe one of those hidden gems. Maybe one day, it will come on TV, and some kid will watch it when he’s way too young, and he’ll be traumatized and it will stay in his brain for decades.
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