Deborah Foreman Recalls ‘Chemistry’ with Nicolas Cage While Filming ‘Valley Girl,’ Says They Had a Secret Signal (Exclusive)

Deborah Foreman starred in the 1983 film ‘Valley Girl’ with Nicolas Cage. In a recent conversation with PEOPLE, the retired actress shared her fond memories of working with the actor early in his career. Foreman also opened up about how ‘Valley Girl’ has come up in her life recently, 35 years after she retired from acting.

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Deborah Foreman starred in the 1983 film Valley Girl with Nicolas Cage

In a recent conversation with PEOPLE, the retired actress shares her fond memories of working with the actor early in his career

Foreman also opens up about how Valley Girl has come up in her life recently, 35 years after she retired from acting

Deborah Foreman has the best memories of making Valley Girl.

In the 1983 film, the actress plays Julie Richman, the girl who has everything until she reconsiders sticking with her boyfriend, Tommy. She starred alongside Nicolas Cage, who plays Randy, a punk who is Tommy’s opposite and catches Julie’s eye, but doesn’t quite get things right with her either.

Foreman, now 63, remembers being struck by how quickly the chemistry between herself and Cage caught on.

“The chemistry, it was already there. And when you have that kind of chemistry, creativity is just on fire,” she tells PEOPLE.

“I mean, you pull creativity from the field anyway. And so, when he would do something, and then it would inspire something in me, or I would do something, and it would inspire something in him,” she continues.

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The two developed a good rapport on set, even coming up with a secret signal for each other.

She recalls, “We had this thing, I don’t even know where it came from, but it’s in the film. It’s not really evident unless I point it out. We would get... I don’t even know what it means now. But we would give each other our noses.”

“We just came up with it. So, if you see us doing that, that’s because he was giving me his nose, and I was giving him mine. And it was just something random that just tickled us to death when we did it,” Foreman says.

Foreman was very impressed with Cage’s work. “He had his little bag of goodies that he brought to that character, too. So, it was wonderful,” she notes.

The retired actress is also struck by how “organic” the interactions between the two felt. She shares, “I noticed when I look at it now, how I would initiate certain things, and it was just organic, that I felt very comfortable with Nick. I organically would hold him, or I would just… certain things I noticed in the film, we didn’t rehearse any of that.”

“I’ve said this before out loud, and I’ll say it again, Nicholas Cage will be the love of my life between the words action and cut,” she declares. “I was gifted with something so extraordinary. As an artist, you’re like, ‘Wow, that doesn’t happen to everyone.’ It’s like, ‘Whoa, man, it was truly a special time in my life.’ Valley Girl is this beautiful love letter to first love, and I got to be a part of it.”

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Courtesy of Michelle Peters

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Foreman, who retired from acting in 1991, recently stepped back into the Valley Girl limelight when she got on stage with Modern English to introduce “I Melt with You” at a recent show.

“That song is the song for that part of people’s lives back in the ‘80s. It’s attached to a love story that is your first love in your life,” she tells PEOPLE.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, and what age you are; everyone has experienced that first love. And I was in that audience, singing the song, and they let us sing the song while they were on stage, and it continues now to bring joy and love,” she observes.

Foreman concludes, “I think we need that now in this world. We need some good vibes.”

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