Nicolas Cage Calls AI a ‘Nightmare,’ Says His The Flash Cameo as Superman ‘Was Not What I Did’

Nicolas Cage is scratching his head over the last part of his cameo role as Superman Flash.

The actor said in an interview published Wednesday with Yahoo! The fun that in the episode he did in the movie, for which he visited the set, “What I got to do was literally just stand in an alternate dimension, if you will, and witness the destruction of the universe.”

Cage, 59, played a younger, multiversal version of Superman in a cameo film. But the on-screen version showed the character “fighting a giant spider” — which is not what Cage said he filmed.

“I didn’t do it. I didn’t do that,” he said. “I don’t think so [created by] AI. I know Tim [Burton] is as upset about AI as I am. It was CGI, well, to age me, and I’m fighting a spider. I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there.”

I just think they did something with it, and again, it’s out of my control, Cage also said of his appearance in the film. “I literally went to shoot a scene for maybe an hour in a suit, looking at the destruction of the universe and trying to convey the feelings of loss and sadness and horror in my eyes. That’s all I did.”

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Nicolas Cage as Superman in an unproduced 1998 film Superman lives movie.

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Nicolas Cage recalls almost playing a ‘kind of Emo’ Superman for director Tim Burton

Cage’s comments about Burton come after the famed director, 65, recently discussed Hollywood’s trend of bringing back beloved characters with the help of artificial intelligence, during a conversation with the British Film Institute.

“It goes into another thing with artificial intelligence, and that’s why I think I’m done studying,” said Burton, who directed the 1989 film. Batman and its sequel from 1992 Batman returns. (He also worked for almost two years in the 90s Superman liveswith Cage as the main character, before the project was scrapped.)

“They can take what you’ve done, Batman or whatever, and culturally abuse it, or whatever you want to call it. Even though you’re a slave to Disney or Warner Brothers, they can do whatever they want,” Burton added. “So in my last years I’m in quiet rebellion against all of this.”

And while Cage doesn’t believe that artificial intelligence was used in his episode Flash, “I understand where Tim is coming from,” he told Yahoo! Fun. “I know what he means. I would be very unhappy if people took my art… and appropriated it.”

“I get it. I mean, I agree with him on that. AI is a nightmare for me,” the actor continued. “It’s inhumane. You can’t get any more inhumane than AI.”

Tim Burton; Nicolas Cage.

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All the actors who played Superman on screen

He praised the film’s costume department and director Andrés Muschietti, but said, “They put a lot of time into making the suits… and I think [Andy] is a great director, he’s a great guy and a great director, and I loved his two It movies.”

Flash was full of cameos, as Cage appeared as Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen hit the multiverse and explored alternate realities including Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Helen Slater’s Supergirl, Adam West’s Batman, and George Reeves’ Superman.

In July, Cage spoke with USA Today about his appearance as Superman in the Flash, more than two decades after the cancellation of his unproduced 1998 Superman lives movie.

“Well, I was glad I didn’t blink,” the Oscar winner joked about the brief cameo that appears at the end of the blockbuster directed by Muschietti, 50, and written by Christina Hodson.

“For me, it was a sense of actualization. Even that look of that particular character, when I finally saw him on the screen, it was satisfying. But like I said, it’s quick,” Cage added.

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Source: HIS Education