Nicolas Cage has shared the reason why he never heard back from Christopher Nolan. The actor, set for the live-action Spider-Man series, revealed that some A-list directors avoid working with him. It is because he has turned down their projects in the past.
Nicolas Cage opens up about Christopher Nolan not wanting to work with him
Nicolas Cage believes that turning down past films cost him a chance to work with Christopher Nolan and many other sought-after directors.
The Ghost Rider actor stars as legendary coach John Madden in David O. Russell’s upcoming film Madden. He said that Russell is the only director who has asked to work with him again after he previously turned down one of their projects.
Nicolas Cage said that Nolan stopped returning his calls after he turned down Insomnia in 2002, which featured Al Pacino and Robin Williams. A psychological thriller about two L.A. homicide detectives investigating a murder in Alaska, Insomnia earned critical acclaim and grossed over $113 million worldwide.
“Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back,” he revealed during a New York Times Q&A published on Saturday, May 23. “It’s happened a million times to me.”
Cage further claimed that Paul Thomas Anderson and Woody Allen, like Nolan, no longer seek him out since he turned down their films.
“They don’t call me back,” he added. “The Paul Thomas Anderson movie was a very early movie. He’d shown me a short film with Philip Baker Hall — who was in ‘Hard Eight.’ And we were going to do something and it didn’t work out.”
However, David Russell reached out again, and Cage saw it as an act of genuine grace. His admiration for Russell’s craft made a second rejection unthinkable.
While Nicolas Cage wouldn’t reveal which Russell project he declined, he joked it was “a million years ago.”
“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,” he shared.
