When Stars Play Themselves: Nicolas Cage Vs. Bruce Campbell

Now & Then

What’s the difference between an actor and a star? What happens when a star acts like themselves? Where’s the line between fantasy and reality?

None of these questions will be answered, but we will have fun discussing The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and My Name is Bruce, two movies where the lead actor plays himself. Sort of.

Warning: There’s some salty language in this video. Not from me, just the movies I chose to clip from.

Second Warning: Yes, I know the voice-over says “child key grip or child production manager” when we’re looking at kid moving a light and operating a control panel. The VO was already recorded and I couldn’t correct it before publishing because it’s late and I didn’t want to wake up the house. No need to comment!

Movies and TV series referenced in this episode

• Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood

• Kidsongs

• Not Another Teen Movie¹

• Reservoir Dogs

• The Social Network

• Singin' in the Rain

• Gone with the Wind

• The Matrix

• Pinocchio

• Sunset Boulevard

• Audition

• Barry

• Notting Hill

• The Firm

• Risky Business

• Collateral

• War of the Worlds

• Edge of Tomorrow

• Mission: Impossible III

• The Simpsons, "A Fish Called Selma"

• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

• To Hell and Back

• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

• My Name Is Bruce

• Wogan

Notes

I really didn’t intend this to be a 90’s episode, but here we are. There are even quite a few from the annus mirabilis 1999.

My wife and I spent a long time coming up with a funny song for the Tom Cruise running montage, starting with, naturally, Yakety Sax, which is a little obvious. We also considered the theme from Chariots of Fire, the Chase from Midnight Express, Del Shannon’s Runaway, Runaround Sue by Dion, and even Running Up That Hill (although I felt I missed the Stranger Things/Kate Bush meme by, like, a year), before finally settling on Run Around by Blues Traveler—

For reference, I found this montage of Every Tom Cruise Run Ever (although I pulled the clips myself, so I wasn’t copying a copy).

And if you’re curious about that Nicolas Cage interview, it’s from Wired’s Web’s Most Searched Questions series.

1. The NATM poster obviously inspired the thumbnail to my introductory video—