Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter One: From Coppola to Cage
Chapter Two: Punk Romeo
Chapter Three: Pulling Teeth
Chapter Four: Uncle Francis
Chapter Five: Baby Fever
Chapter Six: A Nick at the Opera
Chapter Seven: Kiss Me Deadly
Chapter Eight: Cage and the Curious Case of the Big Rubber Nose
Chapter Nine: Goofing on Elvis
Chapter Ten: The Sunshine Trilogy
Chapter Eleven: Drunk in Love
Epilogue
Index

About the Author

Zach Schonfeld is a freelance writer, journalist, and critic based in New York. He contributes to Pitchfork, Paste Magazine, and other publications. He was formerly a senior writer for Newsweek, where he was on staff for five years. His first book, 24-Carat Black's Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth was published in 2020 as part of the 33 1/3 series.

Reviews

Delightful.
*The Wall Street Journal*

A must-read for both Cage obsessives and agnostics: this is a fascinating, consistently bizarre, thoroughly entertaining early-years portrait of a true Hollywood original.
*Empire, 5**

Thorough, considered and entertainingly written.
*James Mottram, Total Film, 4**

Zach Schonfeld's compulsively readable, well-researched book on Nicolas Cage, How Coppola Became Cage, gets to the heart of the unique, multitalented actor.
*PopMatters*

A lively, anecdote-filled look into the actor's shape-shifting, storied career. Even the most ardent Cage fans will learn something new.
*Publishers Weekly*

Fascinating details and entertaining provocative backstories make this an important, captivating read for Cage fans and cinephiles alike.
*Library Journal*

I learned so much from Zach's deep, deep dive into Cage's foundational years and how he came to be the experimental Hollywood A-lister we know today. Zach's thoroughness is remarkable.
*Lindsay Gibb, author of National Treasure: Nicolas Cage*

Before Nicolas Cage was a national treasure, he was Nicky Coppola, an eccentric young actor trying to break out from the long shadow of his family name. In this thorough look at Cage's seldom documented early years, Zach Schonfeld draws on original interviews with siblings, classmates, and colleagues to chronicle his journey from high school theater kid to Valley Girl heartthrob to household name. A must read for Cage fans.
*Dan Ozzi, author of SELLOUT*

Charting an authoritative middle path between scholar and superfan, Schonfeld breaks down the life and works of a beguiling figure with a careful balance of critical rigor and curious open-mindedness. His writing is exhaustively researched and inexhaustibly entertaining, as singularly committed to its project as Cage himself.
*Charles Bramesco, author of Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes*

Meticulously researched...Kudos to Schonfeld for such a compelling work. Like Nick's back catalogue, this is one to revisit time and again.
*Roger Crow, On: Yorkshire*

A detailed documentation of the wonderfully weird and heavily memeified actor's career up until the mid-90s. Full of fascinating behind the scenes anecdotes, it's a great insight into one of Hollywood's most eccentric and beloved stars.
*Amber Bryce, Euronews*