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A few years ago, I saw a giant poster for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and I made a snide joke about how dumb the movie looked to a group of friends. One of them didn’t laugh. In fact, he got indignant. He proceeded to monologue about how he loved all of Nicolas Cage‘s movies and that Nicolas Cage was the greatest actor alive.

Now, he didn’t succeed in convincing me that Cage is the best actor working today, but he did make me realize that Cage might be the most committed.

Sure, all actors are inherently putting on an act, but it’s their job to commit to their parts with such ferocity that we believe their truth, and Nicolas Cage commits to the fullest extreme. He is the rare actor who will treat playing an aging magician in a silly Disney film with as much gravitas as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. He infuses all his roles with a hungry passion. This means that when you give him challenging, yet grounded, roles he delivers tour de force performances. This also means that he’ll only add to the absurdity if you plop him in the middle of a high-concept, low-budget film.

But let’s cycle back to his great work. Let’s talk about how Cage’s unflinching devotion to his roles have helped shape some of the best films of all-time. Think about Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation, or Wild At Heart. All of these films have a dark or kooky twist. That turn is what obviously attracts Cage to roles, but it’s Cage’s ability to double down and make us believe in the circumstance as much as he does that pushes those films to transcendence.

Cage’s commitment is also what helps lift otherwise mediocre films into beloved classics. Moonstruck, for instance, is an absurd film full of truly bizarre moments. Cage’s character is a depressed, opera-obsessed baker with one hand who seduces his older brother’s middle-aged fiancé. He does this with the help of Cage’s inherently intense charm. It’s a part, a story, and a film that only works because Cage is so ridiculously committed to the character’s reality.

Let’s not just talk about Cage’s auspicious work, though. Let’s talk about the truly ridiculous entries into his oeuvre. I’m talking about Face/Off, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Drive Angry, the National Treasure movies, and of course, The Wicker Man. The merits of each of these films is infinitely debatable, but I think it’s obvious that if you see a Nicolas Cage film, then you are going to enjoy yourself. Cage can take something that could just be bad and turn it into something gloriously campy (and incredibly GIF-able).

Nicolas Cage is a man who infamously appeared in a scene in the film Drive Angry where he was fully-clothed, smoking a cigar, having sex with a naked woman when he was interrupted by a bunch of ruffians trying to kill him. In true Cage-ian fashion, he engaged them in a firefight while still remaining fully-clothed, smoking a cigar, and having sex. When asked about it, this is what Cage actually said: “I was thinking of Kama Sutra positions and what would be a position that would show Milton’s sort of anti-divineness because he’s not a divine Hindu spirit.” Meaning, Nicolas Cage sincerely believed that everything in that scene made sense because of ancient Hindu teachings.

Nicolas Cage is so sincere that he will also completely commit to jokes about his infamous intensity. Case in point? When he appeared with Andy Samberg on Saturday Night Live. Samberg had a delightfully inane impression of the actor, and rather than ignore it, Cage joined him on Weekend Update and played along. “That’s high praise!”

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Today, Nicolas Cage turns 51 years old. That’s a long life, but he still has decades of work ahead of him. That means we still have decades of delectably bizarre films and magnificent moments from Hollywood’s most sincere actor — and that’s fantastic. [Where to stream Moonstruck, The Wicker Man, and Drive Angry]

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[Photos: Everett Collection, Gif Source]