Nicholas Cage
Photo: Getty Images, Dimitrios Kambouris. All rights reserved.
No one in their right mind would doubt that Nicolas Cage is a fantastic actor. Still serving as proof is Wild At Heart, Leaving Las Vegas (for which he won an Oscar) and, with a sip of whiskey, pretty much any of his ’90s movies. But something happened to Cage in the mid-2000s that he suddenly found himself in one moronic flick after another. Some of them never even made it to the cinema.
Yes, Nicolas Cage became something of a trash icon. But that certainly didn’t make his films any better. At least not most of them. So far, the 59-year-old has always defended his obscure role choice. But now he admits that there were some nasty bits too.
He told 60 Minutes that this was a “dark time” in his life and he had no chance to do anything differently. Why? Cage had accumulated millions in debt after buying real estate.
“The real estate market crashed and I couldn’t get out in time,” the actor explained. “I paid it all back, but it was like $6 million. I never filed for bankruptcy.”
Nicolas Cage is proud of each of his films
After all, making films, even the strangest productions, helped him get through this period, both financially and mentally.
“Work has always been my guardian angel. It might not have been top-notch work, but it was work nonetheless,” Cage said. “Even if the film sucks at the end, you can tell that I don’t bend over backwards and that I try every time.”
Between all the trash productions there are of course some memorable films (“Mandy”!). Cage’s favorite of this artistic phase of his life: Pig” – about a kidnapped truffle pig. At the end of May, the actor can be seen in the Dracula variant “Renfield”.