Nicolas Cage at the premiere of The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent Photo: Astrid Stawiarz (Getty Images)
In Tom Gormican’s The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage plays a meta version of himself who agrees to attend a billionaire’s birthday party to catch up on his finances. Something Cage shares with the over-the-top version of himself is taking on jobs he wouldn’t normally consider in order to work his way out of debt.
From around 2014, Cage’s debts were heavily publicized when the actor faced bankruptcy. He had squandered his $150 million on real estate and owed the IRS $6.3 million in property taxes.
“I’ve got all these creditors and the IRS and I’m spending $20,000 a month trying to keep my mother out of a mental institution and I can’t do it,” Cage said in a profile with GQ. “It just all happened at once.”
In the interview, Cage talks about overcoming his debt and his time taking on roles in direct-to-video films. He’s always been quite a busy actor, averaging several roles a year since he began his career in 1981. What changed was when they went from big blockbusters to a mountain of VOD productions. Cage acted in 46 films in a time frame where the most successful actors complete about 10. However, the actor is defending his decision to include all of these films.
“When I was making four films a year in a row, I still had to find something in it to give it my all,” says Cage. “They didn’t work, everyone. Some of them were great, like Mandy, but some of them didn’t work. But I never called it. So if there was a misunderstanding, it was that. That I just did it and didn’t care. I was caring.”
However, Cage also acknowledges that taking on those less-glamorous roles that are live-to-video — while indebted to him — definitely influenced the types of offers that came to the table. “The phone stopped ringing,” he says.
“It was like, ‘What do you mean we’re not doing National Treasure 3? It’s been 14 years. Why not?'” he recalls asking before adding the unspoken answer himself: “Well, Sorcerer’s Apprentice didn’t work and Ghost Rider didn’t actually sell tickets. And Drive Angry, it just came and went.”
The actor reveals that he officially paid off his debt a year and a half ago, which was around the time he started taking on more respected shows like indie thriller Pig.
With debt free and back on track in his career, Cage is entering a new era where he can be selective about the roles he takes on, like his decision to play Dracula. “I’m just going to focus on being extremely picky, as picky as possible,” he says. “I want to make every film like it’s my last.”