'It was still work': Nicolas Cage reflects on 'crummy' roles that paid off debts after real estate crash
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Nicolas Cage has finally addressed his worst times, reflecting on why he took on a string of "crummy" film assignments to pull himself out of debt.
Cage, 59, earned an Oscar for his role in the 1995 movie 'Leaving Las Vegas'. With that honor, he went on to star in a string of big-budget action pictures, making him one of the highest-paid performers of the late 1990s.
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The actor was promoting his new film ‘Renfield' when he opened up about his previous financial difficulties in a wide-ranging interview with '60 Minutes', admitting they stemmed from real estate.
‘I was overinvested in real estate’
When asked about the castles he bought in England and Germany, as well as a house in New Orleans and a private island, Cage said, "I was overinvested in real estate. It wasn't because I paid $80 for an octopus. The real estate market crashed and I couldn’t get out in time. I paid them all back, but it was about $6 million. I never filed for bankruptcy," he said.
Instead of declaring bankruptcy, he relocated to Las Vegas and began working nonstop, making three or four films each year to pay off his obligations. Cage said that it was a "dark time, for sure," but that "work was always my guardian angel." "It may not have been blue chip, but it was still work," he added, while addressing talk that he took on a myriad of less-than-prestige roles solely for a paycheck.
"Even if the movie turns out to be crummy, they know I'm not phoning it in, that I care, every time," Cage insisted. "But there are those folks that are probably thinking that the only good acting I can do is the acting I chose to do by design, which is more operatic and larger-than-life, and so-called Cage rage and all that," Cage continued.
"But you're not gonna get that every time," the actor admitted, as he was asked about his "Cage rage" approach. He compared it to "going for the triple axle every time and sometimes you land it and sometimes you don't."
Pig is 'probably my best movie’
"There are times I have a vision for and I do (go for it)," Cage said about his critically-acclaimed role in 2021's 'Pig'. "When I played Rob in Pig, I felt I entered the room. I felt I was closer to me than maybe I had ever been before, in a film performance," Cage admitted.
"That I wasn't acting," he explained when pressed to elaborate. "I felt that I was doing exactly what I care about." He went on to say that 'Pig' is "probably my best movie," even putting it up against his Oscar-winning performance in 'Leaving Las Vegas'.
Apart from his role in 'The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent', Cage also talked about his most recent performance as Dracula in 'Renfield', which was released earlier this month. "Dracula is daunting because it's a legacy. Dracula is a character that has been well-played several times. He's also a character who has been done poorly many times," Cage said. He added that Christopher Lee's performance in the 1958 film 'Dracula' is the one he looks up to the most, noting, "He makes Dracula scary."