Nicolas Cage loves 1994’s Clifford way more than you think he does – and Martin Short has the story
It’s the year 1996. Nicolas Cage has just won Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas. The promotional circuit has put him on the grind and when all is said and done he has other movies to talk about. But it’s not one of his – no, it’s one starring Martin Short. While many of us have come to appreciate 1994’s Clifford – or were fans from the get-go – we wouldn’t necessarily have expected an Oscar winner to praise it. And yet, that’s just what Nicolas Cage did when he first met Martin Short.
Clifford star Martin Short recently shared an anecdote in Interview, saying he couldn’t wait to meet Nicolas Cage after his utterly brilliant turn as an alcoholic in Mike Figgis’ Leaving Las Vegas. But Cage – as he probably always does – had other things on the brain. Yes, we’re talking about Dinosaur World. As Short recalls of his strange encounter with Grodin over Clifford long enough after 1994, “I’ve told the story before, but when Nick Cage won the Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, the following Tuesday I flew from L.A. to New York and I looked and there’s Nic Cage. Never met him before and I thought, ‘I have to go up to him.’ And about 20 minutes later, Nic Cage is kneeling beside me. ‘Dude, I have to talk to you about Clifford. There was one scene in the kitchen that I kept rewinding and I jammed my machine.’ And I thought, ‘Wait a second, I’m supposed to be talking to you about winning the Oscar.’” Just to add more perspective to what Nicolas Cage had to praise in 1994, he evidently would have rather chatted Clifford than Forrest Gump or Pulp Fiction or The Shawshank Redemption or Ed Wood or…
The Clifford scene in question involves both Martin Short (as Clifford) and the late, great Charles Grodin (Uncle Martin), just one of the many moments that the two have together. Personally, I go for their conversation in which Clifford and Uncle Martin have as much of a heart-to-heart as they possibly could, with Uncle Martin begging him to “act like a human boy” while Clifford genuinely considers if prison would be a good place for himself, such a subtle act of emotional brilliance from Short and moment of outrageous disbelief and anger from Grodin. However, based on what Cage said, he probably started wearing out his machine by having Grodin repeatedly Short’s face in a bowl of cereal.
More than 30 years after it came out in April 1994 (opening at #7 at the box office…), Clifford has seen something of a reappraisal. It might not have a complete cult following, but it just might be a matter of time at this point. I rewatched it just a couple of months ago and the movie not only holds up but has some actual fantastic pieces of comedy to it – and considering both Short and Grodin are/were masters of the genre, it’s due time Clifford gets the support it deserves. And to think, too many of us were 30 years behind Nicolas Cage…
Are you a fan of 1994’s Clifford? Do you think it has come around to its intended audience?
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