Nicolas Cage says turning down one role from Christopher Nolan was apparently enough to end their working relationship forever. In a new interview with The New York Times, Cage revealed that several major directors stopped reaching out to him after he declined projects early in his career. And yes, Christopher Nolan was one of them.
According to Cage, Nolan originally offered him a role in the 2002 psychological thriller Insomnia, which eventually starred Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank.
But Cage turned it down.
And apparently Nolan never forgave him.
“Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back,” Cage explained during the interview. “It’s happened with Christopher Nolan, it’s happened with Woody Allen, it’s happened with Paul Thomas Anderson.”
Honestly, considering how many actors would probably sell a kidney for a Nolan role today, that sentence feels mildly insane.
Cage also revealed that Paul Thomas Anderson had approached him for one of his very early films, though the project ultimately “didn’t work out.”
The actor admitted that most directors who hear “no” once usually never return with another offer.
Except for David O. Russell.
Cage said Russell was the rare exception who actually came back years later with another project after an earlier rejection.
That second opportunity ended up becoming Madden, where Cage plays legendary NFL coach and commentator John Madden.
The film also stars Christian Bale, John Mulaney, Kathryn Hahn, Sienna Miller, and Shane Gillis.
Cage described playing Madden as a major challenge because he never naturally associated himself with the football icon.
To prepare mentally, he leaned on advice once given to him by David Bowie.
“I asked him how he kept reinventing himself,” Cage recalled. “He said, ‘I just never got comfortable with anything I was doing.’”
That mindset, honestly, explains Nicolas Cage’s entire career better than anything else ever has.
This is a man who went from Moonstruck to Face/Off to Leaving Las Vegas to whatever beautiful chaos Longlegs was supposed to be.
Meanwhile, Nolan still has not cast him in anything.
Which honestly feels like one of the weirdest missed collaborations in Hollywood history.