Nicolas Cage reveals he took 'crummy' movie roles to get out of debt
Nicolas Cage is opening up about a darker time in his life when he took on a number of 'crummy' movie roles to get himself out of debut.
Cage, 59, won an Oscar for his 1995 drama Leaving Las Vegas and proceeded to take on a number of big-budget action films that made him one of the highest-paid actors of the late 1990s.
The actor was promoting his new movie Renfield when he opened up about his past financial troubles in a wide-ranging interview with 60 Minutes, where he admitted that his financial troubles spawned from real estate.
When asked about the castles he purchased in England and Germany, a mansion in New Orleans and even a private island, Cage admitted, 'I was overinvested in real estate. It wasn't because I spent 80 dollars on 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.
Darker: Nicolas Cage is opening up about a darker time in his life when he took on a number of 'crummy' movie roles to get himself out of debut
Promoted: The actor was promoting his new movie Renfield when he opened up about his past financial troubles in a wide-ranging interview with 60 Minutes , where he admitted that his financial troubles spawned from real estate
Overinvested: When asked about the castles he purchased in England and Germany, a mansion in New Orleans and even a private island, Cage admitted, 'I was overinvested in real estate. It wasn't because I spent 80 dollars on an octopus'
Instead of filing for bankruptcy, he moved to Las Vegas and started working non-stop, filming three or four movies a year to pay off his debts.
Cage added it was, 'a dark time, for sure,' though he admitted, 'work was always my guardian angel.'
'It may not have been blue chip, but it was still work,' he said, while addressing talk that he only took on a myriad of less-than-prestige roles solely for a paycheck, and 'phoning it in.'
'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 being compared to 'going for the triple axel every time and sometimes you land it and sometimes you don't.'
'Well not every time. There are times I have a vision for and I do (go for it), including 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 film performance,' Cage admitted.
Debts: Instead of filing for bankruptcy, he moved to Las Vegas and started working non-stop, filming three or four movies a year to pay off his debts
No phone: 'Even if the movie turns out to be crummy, they know I'm not phoning it in, that I care, every time,' Cage insisted
Acting: '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
Closer: '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 film performance,' Cage admitted
When asked to elaborate, he said, 'That I wasn't acting. I felt that I was doing exactly what I care about.'
He added that Pig is, 'probably my best movie,' even stating he would put that up against his Oscar-winning role in Leaving Las Vegas.
Cage also discussed his most recently role, the iconic vampire Dracula in Renfield, which hit theaters earlier this month.
'Dracula is daunting because it's a legacy. Dracula is a character that has been done well many 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 to the most, adding, 'He makes Dracula scary.
Source: Daily Mail
