Friday, August 29

Masks. Nicolas Cage and Lana del Rey via Oscar Wilde

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Oscar Wilde

Nicolas Cage (Nicholas Coppola)
“I am still legally Nicholas Coppola but I am Nicolas Cage. I had to reinvent myself. ...

As soon as I went into the casting office under a new name and they didn’t know that there was a connection, I got the part. I felt liberated. It gave me the freedom to become what I wanted to be in my dreams.”

Lana del Rey (Elizabeth Grant)
"I think the reason why I started making music and you know [under] the name Lana Del Rey was really just so I always had a vehicle to actually be exactly who I was … like it was actually a way for me [to feel] free enough to be myself and that was my way of choosing to do that.

2 comments:

Dave Bird said...

Reminds me of a recent tv documentary about Dusty Springfield (who as Mary O'Brien was apparently quite an insecure person).
As an amateur photographer I think about how professionals are given (or maybe believe they have) a kind of unspoken permission to access and encroach in situations where the amateur is frowned on. I guess one approach to engender confidence would be to invent a persona with an attitude that says, 'I'm doing something important and have a right to be here whether you like it or not!'
Truthful photography maybe but it seems ironic that the mask for promoting truthfullness in the portrayal of others is there to hide truths about the wearer. On the other hand Lana Del Ray implies that the invented persona allowed more of her true self to come through. I guess the ideal is to somehow embrace the mask and not end up with too much of a split personality!

Paul Russell said...

Thanks for the thoughts, Dave.