Nicolas Cage Can’t Say ‘Steal the Declaration of Independence’ Without Laughing: How Do You Sell Something ‘So Profoundly Ridiculous’?

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Nicolas Cage broke out in laughter during a recent Vanity Fair video interview when forced to watch the infamous scene from 2004’s “National Treasure” in which his character, treasure hunter and cryptographer Benjamin Gates, says for the first time, “I’m gonna steal the Declaration of Independence.” The line of dialogue has been a calling card for Cage’s career for 19 years now and counting, and it’s inspired countless memes and parodies on the internet. “How do you take something that is so profoundly ridiculous and really try to sell it?” Cage said while watching the infamous moment. “What I really like about that scene just seeing it again for the first time in however many years is I like the positivity of the character.

He really believes this. He really reveres it. I think that’s charming.” “I can’t even say it without laughing,” he added about the line. “It has been meme’d so many times.

It has been ‘SNL’d.’ But you can’t help but laugh! I think what makes it work is how serious Justin [Bartha] and I are taking it.

If you play it for laughs, then it’s screwball comedy and it’s stupid and it’s not my thing. That’s not where I’m at. The fact that we’d played it as dramatic actors makes it even more funny than it might’ve been if it was slapstick.” “I think Jon Turteltaub shot it lovingly,” Cage continued. “He made the characters look like they had great reverence and regard [for it] … like a holy object.