Nicolas Cage on 'the anatomy of a cool face'

Nicolas Cage is making the PR rounds for his new film, Joe, in which he plays a salt-of-the-earth ex-con. The movie features no skeleton ghost riding a motorcycle, but chances are good there's at least one shouted speech.

Still, this marks Cage's return to "serious" filmmaking, a journey back to his indie roots, if you will. And as such, the actor wanted to highlight all he's learned through the years, which he did in an interview with NPR this morning.

Some highlights:

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"I had been waiting for the better part of a year to find a script where I could be as emotionally naked as possible… I wanted to go into almost like Dogme style of film performance, where I didn't have to think too much about it and I could just be."

"I spent a lot of time in New Orleans, probably became a man in New Orleans — in fact, I know I became a man in New Orleans."

Referencing a scene in Joe: "This was me trying to find a place, over my entire career, to put my theories about the anatomy of a cool face, which I discovered by watching Marlboro Man commercials..."

Listen to the whole interview over at NPR.