For years, Nicolas Cage has chained inglorious productions, without falling into a cynical approach to his profession. A complicated period which now seems to belong to the past for the actor, who looks particularly enthusiastic towards the future.
The great return of Nicolas Cage?
The past decade has not been the easiest for Nicolas Cage. After several inglorious choices (Next, Bangkok Dangerous), things got really complicated from 2010 for the actor. The star chained in quick succession several films with disappointing results, among which The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Last of the Templars, Hell Driver, or Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. If these feature films are far from being his most successful, they serve as masterpieces in comparison with those that follow.
For almost ten years, the actor has been doing low-frontier thrillers (12 o’clock, Running with the Devil), soft revenge with interchangeable titles (Revenge, cold revenge), and the productions where her hair evolutions, as well as her facial hair, are the main attractions (Arsenal, Crusades, Jiu-Jitsu, Primal). Nevertheless, in this slump also marked by two missed but nonetheless fascinating appointments with Paul Schrader (The Sentinel, dog eat dog) arise a few chips.
David Gordon Green, for example, offers a particularly touching role of mentor to Nicolas Cage in Joe. The actor also participates in a memorable animated film (Spider-Man: Next Generation), finds Oliver Stone on Snowdensinks into a psychedelic nightmare with mandy, and turns under the direction of Sono Sion for the curious Prisoners of the Ghostland. In 2021, the actor finds one of his most beautiful characters in Pig. In addition, on April 20, the legendary living meme will be revealed in one of his biggest roles – his own – in the action-comedy A talent in solid gold. Projects that seem to announce the great return of the star.
A dark time
If he has continued to show involvement, including in difficult times, Nicolas Cage has apparently finished competing with Steven Seagal and Bruce Willis. In any case, this is what he suggests in a long and fascinating portrait produced by QG. The actor explains in particular that if he has chained filming at breakneck speed and without being too careful about the quality in recent years, it is because he was overwhelmed with debt.
Ruined due to bad real estate investments after having acquired a mansion in New Orleans, a castle in England, an estate in Rhode Island as well as properties in the Bahamas or even in Germany, the actor found himself underwater. Preferring to invest in stone rather than buying shares, Nicolas Cage had difficulty parting with all these assets. When he was at his lowest, he owed no less than $14 million to the IRS the US tax administration, as well as several other millions to various creditors.
To this financial rout are added several personal dramas: the death of his father August in 2009, his divorce from Alice Kim after 12 years of marriage in 2016, or the 20,000 dollars monthly paid to the psychiatric establishment in which his mother Joy, a former dancer suffering from schizophrenia and died in 2021 at the age of 85.
Financial problems solved
To settle his debts, Nicolas Cage, therefore, multiplied the DTVs, without putting aside his sincerity. He confides in this regard:
When I was making four films a year in quick succession, I had to find something in these roles to give myself fully. They didn’t all work. Some of them were great, like mandy, but some of them didn’t work. But I never took it lightly. If there was a misconception, it was that I didn’t care. I didn’t care.
The actor affirms, this period seems well and truly over:
I’m just going to focus on being extremely selective, as selective as possible. I would like to make each film as if it were my last.
