Leoni Online: The Articles — CINCINNATI POST LIVING

Nicolas Cage first became a household name doing comedy in films like ”Valley Girl” and ”Raising Arizona.” Now, the Oscar winning actor is going for laughs again in ”The Family Man.” ”I don’t know if I missed it (comedy); I just felt that it was time for a change,” Cage said. ”It had been seven years, and lately I had been into more intense, unhappy sort of characters, and I still seem to have a passion for those characters. But I thought it was time for a more positive, life-affirming sort of movie and that kind of a role.” Not that ”The Family Man” is ”The Brady Bunch.” In this twist on the ”It’s a Wonderful Life” theme, Cage plays a rich, self-centered New York dealmaker who magically gets a look at how his life would have been had he stayed with his college sweetheart (Tea Leoni). ”The glimpse game really is a dangerous game because I didn’t want to do regrets or anything like that,” Cage said. In his own life, Cage guessed that this sort of glimpse would involve a life without acting. ”I think that life would be not better or worse, just different. Way different.” Ms. Leoni sees major changes in her life when she takes a glimpse at her original path. ”If I hadn’t taken this path, I don’t know if I ever would have had a chance to meet David (Duchovny, the ‘X-Files’ star and Ms. Leoni’s husband). I don’t think our paths would have crossed,” Ms. Leoni said. ”But I also have to say I was really headed towards becoming a lawyer, a litigator, and I do want to say on behalf of all the clients I don’t’ have, I think we’re all happier that I went on the other path.” That other path also led to Ms. Leoni becoming a ”family woman.” Shortly before she won the role in ”The Family Man,” she gave birth to her first child. Cage thinks that actually helped make Ms. Leoni perfect for playing a suburban mom totally satisfied with raising a family. ”There was something in her approach, the ease with which she could be funny, the timing that she had, the warmth that she was glowing with because she’s a new mom, it all just made it seem like this was the way to go,” he said. And, believe it or not, Ms. Leoni said going back to work on ”The Family Man” showed her that Hollywood actually has family values, because she experienced no conflict between her acting duties and mom responsibilities.

”Right now the two are harmoniously intertwined because Hollywood is very supportive of motherhood,” Ms. Leoni said. ”It’s easy. I take the baby with me and she’s with me all day.”