And he said, Well, actually this movies about my mom, Oz.
Cage has spoken occasionally before about his mother Joy Vogelsangsstruggles with mental illnessduring his youth.
I know for a fact she had some significant mental health issues that really scared him.
It might seem unlikely given the setup of the film.
Hes repellent, and yet there is something vaguely pitiful about this wretched creature.
We often fuck things up, right?
Perkins says while considering the level of complicity of his most nefarious characters.
We dont take a stab at necessarily hurt people [but we do].
We make bad decisions, we regret the choices we make.
We drive badly as a result of other people driving badly.
Sometimes our best selves are not in fashion.
I think when dealing with the characters Ive written, theyre typically lost people who just get picked up.
And when youre dealing with something as appealing as the Devil is supposed to bethats his thing, right?
He also seems amused at the still persistent fear in parts of American culture of supposedly real devil worshippers.
Its like people who believe in QAnon think that devil worship is eating babies, right?
And devil worship is definitely not eating babies.
The filmmaker likens his compositions and filmic language to crime scene photographs.
Crime scene photographs are the epitome of matter of fact, Perkins explains.
Its a document, its not an artwork; but that makes it an artwork.
That to me expresses, Oh, this is going to happen no matter what.
Theres an inevitability to bad things happening when you maintain a sort of distance of observation.
There are even images that might stem from Perkins own subconscious.
And we just [filmed with the lens looking] into a sink when they took the snakes out.
And [we go], Oh, it looks likePsycho!
Its just there and you might as well get it.
And if I see something, I say something.
