Hey, Mr Mandolin Man

Playing Captain Corelli was a chance for Nicolas Cage to revisit some family roots and relax a little. He talks to ROBERT WARD.

Nicolas Cage's mandolin isn't played as expertly as Captain Corelli's, but he has some illustrious musical genes to call on for help.

In the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin, based on Louis de Bernieres' bestselling novel of the same name, he plays the life-and music-loving Italian Army officer of the title who takes part in Italy's occupation of the Greek island of Cephallonia during the Second World War.

Cage, 37, claims to have no musical abilities, but with his customary determination to overcome challenges, he learned and practised the mandolin doggedly enough to play the three or four songs the movie calls for.

He'd never played an instrument before, but says it was important for him to know that music was in his blood.

His grandfather, Carmine Coppola, was a composer, musician and conductor, and his uncle Anton also conducted. So when Corelli had to conduct his Italian troops singing operatic songs, Cage invoked the name of his grandfather. "I felt that if he would just in some sort of metaphysical way be there for me, I'd be able to get through it."

Carmine Coppola was the father not only of Cage's father, August, a literature professor, and Anton, but also of his famous director uncle Francis.

The chance to explore the family's Italian heritage was one of the attractions for Cage to star in Mandolin.

"I'd seen enough of the gangster Italian Americans and I thought that's one side of things, it's probably a very small side of things, and it might be interesting to look at the cultural aspects of Italians in Italy.

"Even that is a generalisation, but many Italians do love music and wine and are excited by life and beautiful things in life, and Corelli is one of those Italians.

"I wanted to play somebody who was very joyful about life. That was a change for me from my recent work, which was a bit more edgy and intense."

Despite the family background, Cage doesn't speak Italian, but he adopts a thick Italian accent speaking English to Greeks and Germans.

"It was difficult learning the accent for me, because I think my voice is very idiosyncratic and has been for a while," he says, "so changing it into an Italian accent was a bit of a challenge."

Cage related to Corelli's passion for life.

"I think that I'm passionate about life. I have my passions that I get excited about. Corelli gets excited about his music, I've been excited about film, and there's a similarity there.

"There's a desire to enjoy the weekend. I have my day off and I want to enjoy that day off. I think that where Corelli and I separate is that Corelli always wants that day to be off, every day is off, until he realises that he's being a bit superficial and he's got to grow up."

On his days off, Cage says, "I just go home and I may ride a motorcycle if the weather conditions are right. I might go on a boat - I love the ocean. I like wine. I like to just relax. I like to watch movies. I like to listen to music. I like to read. Or be with friends, be with my son."

That's 10-year-old Weston, by actress Christina Fulton. He split with his actress wife Patricia Arquette last year and now goes out with Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of one of his favourite pop-culture icons.

Cage has a taste for fast cars as well as motorcycles, which added an edge to last year's film Gone in 60 Seconds. The fascination with speed is simple.

"It's the only time I really relax, oddly enough. You're trying to stay alive and you're not thinking about anything that may be bothering you in the day, so it's a break from your own mind. You have to focus on the task at hand, and that can be very relaxing."

such as Superman, and when he decided to eschew the Coppola name to go it alone in his acting career, he chose the surname of a black superhero, Luke Cage.

"I really don't know much about Luke Cage, Powerman," he says. "I read comic books as a kid and I liked them - in fact I learned to read because of them - but I just thought he had an interesting-sounding name.

"And then when I went to music school I discovered John Cage, avant-garde composer, and I listened to him because of Luke Cage. I was looking for a unique name that would be simple but memorable. I didn't want some absurd name like Leopard."nteBecause he sees all his acting choices as logical, even necessary, Cage doesn't understand the "Nic Cage is weird" press.But he took a People story about his on-set antics so seriously that he forced the magazine to retract it.

"That bothered me, because I don't just define myself by my work. I define myself by how I treat people.

"My motto is treat people as you want to be treated, and I want to treat people with respect. So when they say I don't do that, then I get angry."

From Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Cage went straight into another Second World War film, John Woo's Windtalkers. He'd enjoyed working with Woo on Face/Off, his third action movie after The Rock and Con Air, but the main attraction was that the Windtalkers character was the complete opposite of Corelli.

"He begins the movie tortured and dark and he ends the movie tortured and dark."

Cage was back in his element.

* Captain Corelli's Mandolin is released on Thursday.