Nicolas Cage joins Sebastian Stan, Brendan Fraser in unrecognizable movie roles

Nicolas Cage's role in the newly released "Longlegs" horror film has made the acclaimed actor unrecognizable.

In the psychological thriller, FBI Agent Lee Harker, portrayed by Maika Monroe, is on the hunt for a serial killer known as Longlegs (Cage). According to Rotten Tomatoes, Monroe saw Cage in his full make-up and full prosthetic during the first take of their shared scene.

A video uploaded to YouTube showed that Monroe's resting heart rate was 76 beats per minute before seeing Cage. Once she took in the Oscar-winning actor in character, her heart rate reportedly skyrocketed to 170 beats per minute.

In the film, Cage wears a blonde wig, with full prosthetic work done on his face; any shred of what the award-winning actor actually looks like was gone.

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Cage is not the first star to undergo an extensive transformation to play a role on the big screen. Here is a look at other stars who went big when it came to portraying a character in a film.

Branden Fraser, ‘The Whale’

In 2022, Brendan Fraser underwent a 600-pound transformation for his role in "The Whale," but he didn't gain the weight himself.

Fraser played Charlie, a reclusive English teacher nearing the end of his life.

According to the LA Times, Fraser's transformation was thanks to "the extensive prosthetics" that had gone into creating his character on-screen.

In 2023, Fraser spoke to the outlet about his character's weight. 

"He is clearly encumbered by his body," Fraser said at the time. "And when the body has weight on it like that, it compresses the lungs. Breathing is a huge issue for people with obesity — there’s sometimes a rattle and a wheeze in the lungs. So his voice is pinched and fraught for all those reasons, but mostly because of the emotionality of the character." 

In order to accurately portray his character, Fraser spoke with the Obesity Action Coalition to gain insight. 

"Eating disorders are diabolical, and Charlie has an eating disorder," Fraser told the outlet. "You have to have respect for an illness, and Charlie hasn’t been acknowledging it — he has not embraced it, and he’s not reckoning with it."

About a month into filming, the movie’s director, Darren Aronofsky, said that the actor was "all pedal and no gas."

"I was feeling poorly — it would’ve been a failure," Fraser said in an interview with Vanity Fair at the time. "Darren said, ‘We're going to come back and do this tomorrow. You peaked.' He said, ‘It happens — you peaked.'"

Fraser noted that he took on this role to push himself. "I wanted to know what I was capable of," he said.

"If there's no risk, then why bother?"

— Brendan Fraser

Fraser, who has not taken on any major roles in more than a decade, said he wanted to fully immerse himself in Charlie’s character and become "unrecognizable."

"If there’s no risk, then why bother?" Fraser said. "I want to learn from the people I’m working with at this point in my career. I’ve had such variety, a lot of high highs and low lows, so what I’m keen for, in the second half of my time doing this, is to feel like I’m contributing to the craft and I’m learning from it. This is a prime opportunity. I wanted to disappear into it. My hope was that I would become unrecognizable."

Sebastian Stan, ‘A Different Man’

Sebastian Stan underwent extensive prosthetic work for his role in "A Different Man" in 2024.

Stan unveiled his character in the A24 film on Instagram in 2022. In "A Different Man," Stan took on the role as Edward, a man with neurofibromatosis who underwent "major facial reconstruction surgery," according to Variety.

According to the outlet's synopsis of the film, Edward becomes obsessed with the actor who portrays him during a stage play based on his life.

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According to the Mayo Clinic, neurofibromatosis, the condition Stan's character has in the film, is caused by "a group of genetic disorders that cause tumors to form on nerve tissue."

Two years ago, Stan took to Instagram to share a look at his character and thank the "amazing work" done by his make-up team.

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Fans were in awe of the character's transformation. "Amazing looks so realistic. Thank you for helping to raise awareness of NF," one user wrote.

"Damn this is crazy good!" another user wrote at the time. A third added, "Wow, The detail, and work put into this character looks very impressive. I love this."

Charlize Theron, ‘Monster’

In June 2019, Charlize Theron admitted that she nearly turned down her Oscar-winning role as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the 2003 film "Monster."

"I didn’t think I could do it at first," the 43-year-old told Marie Claire Australia at the time. "The thing that convinced me ultimately was that I had never had — and I get emotional thinking about it — I never had somebody believe in me like that before. I was always the person who would go into audition after audition after audition and lay myself on broken glass and not get the part. And all of a sudden, this woman is sitting in front of me, and she’s like, ‘You have to. You’re the only person who can.’"

Theron reportedly gained 30 pounds to play Wuornos, a major transformation for the South African model.

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"[Aileen] wrote in a letter that even though she was a prostitute and would do pretty much anything, the one thing she wouldn’t do was take her shirt off," said Theron. "I don’t think she liked her body. I think her body represented a lot of demons for her. So from reading that, I said, ‘Patty, I think I’m going to put on some weight.’ We never discussed it like this big thing, like so aim — ‘We’re gonna gain 30 pounds.’"

"It wasn’t about getting fat," Theron continued. "Aileen carried scars on her body from her lifestyle, and if I’d gone to make this movie with my body — physically I’m very athletic — I don’t know that I would have felt the things Aileen felt with her body. It was about getting to a place where I felt closer to how Aileen was living. I didn’t want to look at my body and see my natural muscle. That kind of thing would have thrown me off completely in trying to be her."

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Wuornos, a hitchhiking prostitute in Florida who killed six men, was executed in 2002 at age 46. She became the 10th woman executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed in 1977. "Monster" was released a year later.