“Dream Scenario” Star Julianne Nicholson on ‘Recurring Anxiety Dreams’ and Nicolas Cage’s Acting Style (Exclusive)

Julianne Nicholson, who plays wife to a hapless Nicolas Cage in ‘Dream Scenario,’ calls her costar “endlessly watchable”

Julianne Nicholson brought personal experience to her trippy new movie Dream Scenario.

The A24 comedy, from Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli, stars Nicolas Cage as an ordinary man who for no discernible reason begins appearing in multiple people’s dreams.

“I do have scary acting dreams,” Nicholson, 52, tells PEOPLE when asked whether her own snoozes helped her prepare to play Janet, wife to Cage’s hapless Paul.

“Mostly I have recurring anxiety dreams [where I’m] right about to go on stage,” she recalls, “or about to film a scene, and you don't know what the scene is!”

That “worst-case scenario” that plays out in her head while asleep speaks to deeper fears most performers can relate to, says the Emmy-winning Mare of Easttown star. “I guess it's just fear of not being prepared, not doing your work, not giving enough.”

Related: Julianne Nicholson Thanks Kate Winslet While Accepting Emmy Win: 'I Owe This to You'

Nicholson has given more than enough as an actor, from solid work in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Masters of Sex and more on the small screen to scene-stealing performances on the big screen, including last year’s Blonde and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

The Massachusetts-born actress and former model will next appear in A24’s Janet Planet and is currently filming the BBC series Dope Girls in London, where she lives with her husband, actor Jonathan Cake, and their teenaged son and daughter. 

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Did Dream Scenario cause her to have any dreams featuring Cage, as in the movie itself? “I guess daydreaming about him,” she says with a laugh. “He definitely pops up in my mind regularly.”

Nicholson says she has “loved Nicholas Cage forever,” especially his work in Raising Arizona, Adaptation and Moonstruck. “I find him endlessly watchable and interesting. You never know how he's going to deliver a line, how he's going to put words together, and I love that. It's so nice to be surprised by someone.”

Related: Owen Wilson Reveals His Dream Costar Is Nicolas Cage: 'I've Loved Him in So Many Movies' (Exclusive)

That was true “every day, face to face” on the set of Dream Scenario, she adds; even when playing a meek biology professor, Cage can keep costars on their toes. “It's very exciting to know that you have to pay attention.”

Cage’s Golden Globe-nominated performance as Paul works because the ensuing “wackiness,” as Nicholson calls it, stems from his and Janet’s “normal working longterm relationship.”

“I think we were both surprised by how much feeling came up in [filming] that, and it was really lovely to have that experience with him.”

Related: Nicolas Cage Once Bought an Airplane Seat for His Son's Imaginary Friend, Minnie Driver Reveals

Nicholson remains in awe of Cage’s ability to reinvent himself from project to project throughout a long career.

Playing Dream Scenario’s unassuming family man — particularly after playing a mysterious kidnapper in the thriller Sympathy for the Devil, a wacky Dracula in Renfield and himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent — is “just the name of the game for him,” she says. 

“He takes the work so seriously, but he still has a sense of humor about himself, and I find that a very charming combination.”

At the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of Dream Scenario in September, Cage also reflected on his own dreams.

“I always like it when my father shows up,” the Oscar winner told PEOPLE of the late August Coppola. “I haven't seen him in person since he passed on. So when he shows up, that's always a good thing.”

Dream Scenario, costarring Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula and Dylan Baker, is out now.

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