Nicolas Cage's baleful expression has, paradoxically, enlivened such movies as Birdy, Peggy Sue Got Married and, most recently, Raising Arizona and Moonstruck. His new release is Vampire's Kiss, in which he eats a cockroach. Robert Crane caught up with Cage at his office in Los Angeles. Crane reports, "Cage reacted to being interviewed as most people react to having root-canal work done. Unaccustomed to self-promotion, he paced the floor like an inmate on death row, constantly running his fingers through his shock of unruly hair. Yet he was very cordial."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Your uncle is Francis Ford Coppola. Do you call him Godfather?

Nicolas Cage: I called him Godfather when I was about eight years old. We used to go shopping in Chinatown. He would buy me laser-beam guns. There were three other kids: my brother, Christopher, and his two boys, Roman and Gian Carlo. I remember one time we went miniature golfing and I kept singing the theme song to The Godfather just to bother him. I kept doing it over and over. He thought it was funny, I guess. I'm kidding. I don't really call him Godfather. I call him Kurtz.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: When Coppola gives you advice, do you follow it?

Nicolas Cage: Sometimes I ask him questions about people he's worked with. Once, I asked him about auditions because I was having trouble with readings. He reminded me that the reading is not a finished product and that has always calmed me down. He told me how Brando used to like to work with the artificial elements around him on films like Mutiny on the Bounty, where he requested a block of ice to sit on. These are probably all secrets. I shouldn't be exposing them.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Our female colleagues think you're made for the Italian T-shirt. Why?

Nicolas Cage: My grandfather was a coal miner in the Twenties and he used to wear one of those shirts. I remember him wearing them at breakfast. It's sort of a worker's shirt. It sort of says manual labor.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: When was the last time the moon hit your eye like a big pizza pie?

Nicolas Cage: It hasn't happened yet and I'm twenty-four.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Describe amore.

Nicolas Cage: Amore is a real Dean Martin kind of thing. Amore, to, me, has shades of Hollywood Squares. It's a real saccharine concept of love. I don't really know anything about amore. I think I do have a romantic tendency in my life. I do like women. I'm totally mystified by women. I don't quite understand women. If I were to become a woman for a day, the first thing I would do is masturbate. Cupid came around once or twice last year, but I didn't exactly get stung -- you know what I mean.