Sometimes good actors make bad movies. In the case of Nicolas Cage, he’s made a lot of movies that have not been well received. With movies like Next and The Wicker Man clogging up his resume, it’s easy to forget that over the course of his career, Cage has shown solid acting chops in both commercially and critically successful movies, ranging from comedies like Raising Arizona to dramatic roles such as Leaving Las Vegas. Every so often, he can even deliver a wonderfully over-the-top performance in a ridiculous cheese fest like Con Air or Face/Off. The rest of the time? It’s a mixed bag.
But what about all the now-classic movies he actually said no to? Just think of the Oscars he could have won and the dinosaur skulls he could have bought. Cage has said that regret is a waste of time, so it’s unlikely that he howls into the night over passing on some of the amazing roles that we’ve highlighted below (no, that’s not why he howls), but that doesn’t mean that we can’t wince for him and shake our heads at the majesty that would have been a Nic Cage-starring version of The Matrix.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
While Nic Cage did star in his own ’80s teen comedy with Valley Girl, he missed out on the chance to star in the ’80s teen comedy when he lost the part of John Bender in The Breakfast Club. Hughes was looking at Cage, John Cusack, and Judd Nelson for the bad boy part, and decided John Cusack simply wasn’t threatening enough. Nelson would later nearly be fired from the set for taking the rebel part to heart a little too much, but Cage’s strange vibe might have been a little too intense.
Dumb & Dumber (1994)
Jeff Daniels did a terrific job playing the slightly less stupid idiot in Dumb & Dumber, but if Jim Carrey had his way, he would have been taking that trip to Aspen with Cage. The two actors used to be friends, and Cage told The Hollywood Reporter that they had talked about doing the movie together, but he ultimately opted for Vegas over Aspen.
“Well, we talked at length about trying to do a movie together,” Cage told the Huffington Post of having been good friends with Carrey, who he now no longer talks to (because they “fell out of conversation”).” In fact, he wanted me to be in Dumb & Dumber with him. And then I wanted to do a much smaller movie instead called Leaving Las Vegas.”
Lord of the Rings (2001)
Apparently, Nicolas Cage isn’t a fan of New Zealand, you guys. Or at least he wasn’t high on the idea of spending an extended amount of time in the land of the kiwi. Cage had the opportunity to star in one of the most celebrated sci-fi films of the ’90s with The Matrix, but turned it down because of the New Zealand shooting location. Cut to 2001 when Peter Jackson comes calling about the role of Aragorn. This role would demand an even longer stay in New Zealand with it being part of a trilogy, and Cage told Newsweek that he had to pass on the part.
“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. And I do mean it. I get to enjoy the movies as an audience member, because I don’t watch my own movies.”
Uh, you’re welcome, Keanu and Viggo.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
As we’ve covered before, Eternal Sunshine is arguably Jim Carrey’s best dramatic role. The part wasn’t even intended for Carrey, though, and only went to the actor because Nicolas Cage turned down the opportunity to star in the acclaimed indie film. According to filmmaker Michel Gondry, Nicolas Cage had been the number one choice, but the actor was being offered a lot of indie stuff at the time and didn’t have any interest.
“We had approached Nicolas Cage a long time ago, but every independent director who wanted to make a commercial movie asked Nicolas Cage to be in their movie after Leaving Las Vegas, except he would only do one out of ten of these projects. We had to find an actor who could help us finance the film, because that’s the name of the game, and of all the actors we saw, Jim was the one we could identify with.”
Crank (2006)
Jason Statham is great at kicking bad dudes upside the head. In fact, you could argue that no actor working today is better at kicking bad dudes upside the head than Statham, but he almost lost out on what may have been his finest head-kicking opportunity. During promotion for Ghost Rider 2, writers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor revealed that they had originally intended for Nicolas Cage to play the lead in the Crank series. As good as Cage might have been in the movie, Statham was obviously the right choice, and the role helped usher him into the action star slot that he holds down today.
The Wrestler (2008)
Nicolas Cage is a bit of an un-championed Hollywood humanitarian, taking dismal projects like Bangkok Dangerous so that other actors can have parts in awesome movies like The Wrestler. That’s just the sort of swell guy Cage is. Case in point, The Wrestler. For much of the ’90s and 2000s, Mickey Rourke wasn’t exactly landing choice roles. The way Cage tells it, he had taken on the part and was in the midst of training when he realized he didn’t have the pumped up bod needed for the role, so he rang up Rourke and told him to take the part, thus revitalizing his career.
Superman Lives (Never happened)
It’s widely known that Cage was given the part in Tim Burton’s planned revitalization of the Superman franchise, Superman Lives. The movie was going to center around Brainiac and Lex Luthor attempting to kill Superman, and got so far as a screenplay and costume fitting before Cage was stripped of his cape and the movie was killed off. If you’re itching to know the in-depth story, there’s even a documentary about the failed film.
