Nicolas Cage spoke about how Hollywood is extremely stingy with their second chances.
A string of directors no longer wanted to work with him for a certain reason, the 62-year-old actor claimed.
“They get their feelings hurt,” he said about the directors.
Nicolas Cage spoke about how Hollywood is extremely stingy with their second chances
Highlights
- Nicolas Cage listed out the directors who refused to call him back for a particular reason.
- “They get their feelings hurt,” he said about the directors.
- The actor made the revelations while talking about his upcoming movie Madden, directed by David O. Russell and also starring Christian Bale.
Image credits: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Nicolas Cage recently sat down for a Q&A with the New York Times, published over the weekend.
He spoke about working with director David O. Russell for his upcoming film Madden, in which he plays football icon and Raiders head coach-turned-iconic broadcaster John Madden.
Christian Bale also stars in the film as Raiders team owner Al Davis.
Image credits: Prime Video
“I really didn’t know who he was. I don’t have, in my view anyway, much in common with him,” Cage said about playing John Madden.
The longtime star went on to talk about how David O. Russell was the only director to offer him a movie even after Cage once rejected him.
The 62-year-old actor claimed there’s a string of directors who took rejection personally
Image credits: Prime Video
“[He] offered me a movie a million years ago,” he said. “It was a good movie, and he offered it, and I said no, and he’s the only director that I ever said no to who actually came back and offered me another movie.”
Cage claimed that Christopher Nolan, Woody Allen, and Paul Thomas Anderson were among the directors who took rejection personally when he turned down their previous offers.
Image credits: The Interview
“Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back. It’s happened a million times to me,” he told the outlet.
“It’s happened with Christopher Nolan, it’s happened with Woody Allen, it’s happened with Paul Thomas Anderson,” he continued. “They don’t call me back.”
Cage mentioned the movie that Christopher Nolan offered to him in the early 2000s
Image credits: Gilbert Flores/Variety/Getty Images
The National Treasure: Book of Secrets star said Christopher Nolan had approached him earlier, offering him a role in his 2002 film Insomnia.
Starring Al Pacino and the late Robin Williams, the movie follows two Los Angeles homicide detectives investigating a teen girl’s m*rder in Alaska.
Cage said the film Paul Thomas Anderson offered was a “very early” one.
“He’d shown me a short film with Philip Baker Hall… And we were going to do something and it didn’t work out,” he said.
Image credits: Raph_PH/Wikimedia
While other directors allegedly refused to give him another chance, Cage said David O. Russell “showed a lot of class” by calling him back and inviting him again.
“I didn’t want to say no to him again because I have great respect for his talent,” he said.
Filming for Madden was a beautiful experience, Cage said, adding that he enjoyed working with Russell and acting alongside Bale.
“But it was a big challenge,” he said. “I don’t think of myself when I think of John Madden. So I was like, OK, how can I get way out of my comfort zone?”
A supporting actor on the set of Madden quit about two weeks into the start of production
Image credits: Prime Video
Production for Madden began last year, and drama reportedly ensued on the film’s set after an unnamed supporting actor quit about two weeks in.
Reports claimed the actor backed out over Russell allegedly using the N-word while they were working on an impromptu monologue.
But Amazon Studios claimed at the time that it was the actor’s idea to include the racial slur in the scene.
Image credits: Vanity Fair
One source also told TMZ that the same actor refused to do a fully unclothed scene in a locker room, which allegedly sparked an “unprofessional” reaction from the upset director.
The studio responded, saying there was an intimacy coordinator on set to help the actor feel comfortable, but he “still had an issue.”
That is when Russell “calmly said he didn’t have to be in the shot.”
George Clooney once claimed working with Russell was the “worst experience” of his life
Image credits: Murray Close/Sygma/Getty Images
Previously, Russell was accused of s*xually ass*ulting his 19-year-old transgender niece in 2011. He later denied the claims.
George Clooney once claimed Russell made his life “hell” and “every person on the crew’s life hell” on the set of the 1999 film Three Kings.
The actor called the director a “miserable f***” during a 2024 interview with GQ.
Russell screamed at people “all day, from day one,” Clooney said, calling the production “the worst experience of [his] life” during a 2000 interview with Playboy.
Past reports have also claimed Russell once had a physical tussle with Christopher Nolan at a 2003 Hollywood party.
Madden is expected to be released in November, 2026.
“He's not the only game in town,” one commented after Cage's remarks
