Going full meta: Nicolas Cage and the actors who love playing themselves

msn.com:

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a bracingly original meta-comedy. Not only is he playing himself – albeit a more cash-strapped version facing financial ruin – he also stars as his imaginary alter ego: Nicky (a Wild At Heart-era Cage who has been eerily de-aged with CGI).

In recent years, on screen and off, Cage has garnered a reputation for eccentricity, to put it mildly, but he has been at great pains to stress just how far he is from this fictionalised version of himself, even though he also landed himself in serious debt after reportedly spending his $150m fortune. “I have a lot of quiet moments at home with just my cat, reading,” he told the Hollywood Reporter last month. “Do we want to show any of that?

No, because it’s not fun. ”Showing A-list stars on an egotistical rampage – now that’s fun. Usually, when actors portray themselves in films, it’s played for laughs, although there has been the occasional foray into drama. “We don’t really know what an actor is like in reality, so what they’re actually performing is a version of themselves that is known and disseminated in culture, in films and by chatshows,” says Dr Andrew Stubbs, senior lecturer in film, media and communication at Staffordshire University.

The most successful performances within this niche tend to either exaggerate an actor’s public image or play against it completely.