Everyone knows one of the many cardinal rules of the internet: name a movie,anymovie, and it’ll always be improved by the presence of oneNicolas Cage. Even a movie ostensibly about the life of Nic Cage has to include Nic Cage being his most Nic Cage, or else. Unfortunately, given the World Wide Web had barely been conceived in 1990, it looks like directorFrancis Ford Coppolamissed the memo, declining to cast nephew Cage in hisGodfatherfranchise threequel.
The actor revealed the snub as part ofthis year’sHollywood Reporter Actor Roundtable, in which he’s joined byJonathan Majors,Red Rocket’sSimon Rex,Andrew Garfield, andPeter Dinklage. Asked by THR to name a movie they’d love to make assuming a blank check, a humble Rex responded that he’s “just so excited because I feel like [Red Rocketis] going to propel me to take chances and do roles that I didn’t even know I could do.” A self-depreciating Cage, on the other hand, looked to the past:
“This is a very embarrassing answer to your question, OK, because it involves family. So Uncle [Coppola] was doingGodfather III, and I said, “I really think I ought to be in your movie, Uncle. I really think it’s a good idea if you would cast me. I think I could play this part.” He was going to castAndy Garcia, and I said, “But I just see myself more asJames Caan’s son, and he’s playing Sonny’s son. He’s not playing Michael’s son. He’s Sonny’s son. I just feel a little more James Caan.” It just wasn’t going to happen. Nope, not going to happen. So that was a movie I didn’t get let in that I really wanted to be in. There.”
RELATED:Nicolas Cage Says ‘Malignant’ Inspired His Take on Dracula, Because Talent Recognizes TalentWell, for what it’s worth, we’re with you, Nic: you’re James Caan’s son because you’re everybody’s son, and you couldplayanybody’s son. Even if Uncle Francis couldn’t quite see it.
Cage appears on the roundtable for his stellar leading work on 2021’sPig, which has picked up a swathe of awards nominations since the circuit kicked into gear in the fall. He’ll next appear as a version of himself inThe Unbearable Weight of Massive TalentalongsideNeil Patrick Harris,Pedro Pascal, andTiffany Haddish, and he’s soon to play Dracula in Universal’sRenfield, a reimagining of Bram Stoker’s classic gothic novel, a role for which he sayshe took inspirationfromJames Wan’s cult horror hitMalignant.
