If you give Nicolas Cage the right part, the man will give you an incredible performance.
Just see Mandy, Adaptation, or Wild at Heart for proof. And don’t forget that Cage won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas. On the flip side, he has a really bad habit of picking awful parts and winding up in horrible movies.
For every Joe or Bad Lieutenant, the man has shown up in a dozen cinematic atrocities like Left Behind, Season of the Witch, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and of course, the infamous remake of The Wicker Man. Take a look at his filmography, and it’s tempting to think that he’ll just say “yes” to any script that comes along. But believe it or not, Cage actually puts some thought into the parts he picks, which means there are quite a few iconic characters that he’s passed on. From bumbling idiots to sadistic cult leaders, these are the roles that Nicolas Cage actually turned down.
Cage passed on a dumb (and dumber) role
With his frazzled hair and goofy grin, it’s impossible to imagine anybody besides Jeff Daniels playing that lovable Dumb and Dumber doofus Harry Dunne. But as it turns out, Daniels wasn’t the first pick to play Jim Carrey’s sidekick. Speaking with The Huffington Post in 2012, Nicolas Cage revealed that he he used to be good friends with Carrey (evidently, they don’t talk much these days; they just went separate ways), and as he put it, “Well, we talked at length about trying to do a movie together.”
Sure, they both appeared in Peggy Sue Got Married, but the duo wanted to make a film where they were both the leads, acting alongside one another. And Carrey actually had a very specific movie in mind. “In fact,” Cage elaborated, “he wanted me to be in Dumb and Dumber with him.” However, Cage turned down the part of Harry Dunne for Leaving Las Vegas, the film that earned him an Oscar for Best Actor. Still, it’s pretty wild imagining what Cage’s take on the character would’ve been like, and based on his bathroom freakout in Mandy, you know Cage would’ve done something truly crazy with that infamous toilet scene.[/nextpage][nextpage]
Nicolas Cage was not The One
Some actors were just born to play a certain role. Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. And Keanu Reeves is Neo from The Matrix. With his martial arts skills and zen-bro attitude, Reeves is the only actor who could have dodged all those bullets and saved humanity from evil A.I. But hindsight is 20/20, and in the early days of Matrix pre-production, the Wachowskis considered pretty much every single actor in Hollywood before finally getting around to Reeves.
It’s been reported that Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, and Will Smith were all considered for the role, but fortunately, none of them worked out. You can also add Nicolas Cage to that impressive list. The man had established some serious action cred with movies like The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off, so you can see why the Wachowskis were interested.
Cage turned down the opportunity to learn kung fu because a lot of the filming was going to take place in the Land Down Under. As the actor explained, he didn’t want to spend that much time in Australia because he had “family obligations,” before going on to say, “I’m glad I stayed [home], and I had those experiences with my family.” Still, as perfect as Reeves was for the part, it would’ve been pretty fun watching Cage go full-blown psycho on Agent Smith.[/nextpage][nextpage]
He was scared of Shrek
Nicolas Cage is no stranger to animation, having lent his voice to movies like The Ant Bully and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However, the actor missed an incredible animated opportunity when he turned down the chance to voice everybody’s favorite ogre, Shrek. The reasons why he passed on the big green guy are a little confusing, as Cage has given conflicting accounts.
Speaking with The Daily Mail, Cage said he that turned down Shrek because he “just didn’t want to look like an ogre.” So was there a bit of vanity at play? Or was Cage only joking? Well, the actor changed his story during an interview with TODAY, pointing out that he’s played unattractive characters before, like the Kaufman twins in Adaptation. He then described his thought process behind turning down Shrek by explaining his decision to play the caveman Grug in The Croods. “I want kids to look at Grug [and think], ‘Well, he’s a little scary, but he’s a big teddy bear. And I wasn’t sure I could do that with Shrek.”
So was he just too vain to play an ugly-looking ogre, or was he simply unsure of his acting abilities? Whatever the reason he said no, Cage did admit to The Daily Mail, “Maybe I should have done it looking back.”[/nextpage][nextpage]
Cage turned down the crown
When it comes to fantasy films, there’s one franchise to rule them all: The Lord of the Rings. From its emotional heft to the incredible action scenes, Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth trilogy is practically perfect. That’s especially true when it comes to casting. Ian McKellen kills it as Gandalf. Andy Serkis earns his title as motion-capture king playing Gollum. And, of course, Viggo Mortensen is irreplaceable as Aragorn, bringing such a quiet strength and nobility to the part that it’s almost blasphemous to imagine Nicolas Cage in his stead.
However, Cage was almost the guy helping Frodo get to Mount Doom. He later admitted that Lord of the Rings is one of those movies that he “probably would have benefited from” if he’d taken the role. However, the trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, and Cage didn’t want to spend so much time working overseas. Talking with Newsweek, Cage explained, “There were different things going on in my life at the time that precluded me from being able to travel and be away from home for three years.”
But for Cage, there’s a silver-lining here: he gets to watch the movies as a fan. According to the actor, he genuinely loves the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but never watches his own movies. If he’d starred as Aragorn, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the adventures of Frodo, Sam, and Gandalf. Still, even though Mortensen was perfect casting, we wish we could hear Cage trying to speak Elvish.[/nextpage][nextpage]
Cage was too busy for this sci-fi flick
Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a gorgeous and haunting sci-fi film that features one of Jim Carrey’s all-time best performances. Carrey drops his over-the-top comedy shtick to play a shy, heartbroken man named Joel Barish who wants to use some state-of-the-art equipment to wipe his ex-girlfriend from his memories. Carrey brings a mix of agony and quiet humor to the role, and he’s perfectly balanced out by Kate Winslet’s exuberant yet angry performance. However, long before Carrey came on board, Gondry had his eye on Nicolas Cage for the part of Joel.
In fact, the French filmmaker actually offered Cage the part, but as he explained to The Daily Beast, “Every independent director who wanted to make a commercial movie asked Nicolas Cage to be in their movie after Leaving Las Vegas, except that he would only do one out of ten of those projects.” Fortunately, Carrey came along and saved the day, and while Cage can definitely deliver when it comes to heartache, Eternal Sunshine needed someone who would sob quietly, not explode like a volcano of red hot emotion.
(Excerpt) Read More at: Looper.com[/nextpage]