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Nicolas Cage has shared that several top-tier directors, including Christopher Nolan, might be hesitant to collaborate with him due to his past decisions to decline their projects. The veteran actor, now 62, recently paired up with director David O. Russell for the upcoming film “Madden,” where he portrays the iconic football coach John Madden. Cage mentioned that Russell stands out as the only director who has reached out again after Cage previously turned down one of his films.
The actor recounted an incident with Nolan, who had reportedly stopped returning Cage’s calls after he opted out of participating in Nolan’s 2002 film “Insomnia,” a thriller that ultimately featured Al Pacino and the late Robin Williams. During a Q&A session with the New York Times, Cage remarked, “Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back. It’s happened a million times to me.”
In addition to Nolan, Cage indicated that acclaimed directors Paul Thomas Anderson and Woody Allen are among those who have distanced themselves following his rejections of their projects. This pattern, according to Cage, seems to be a recurring theme in his career, as turning down opportunities has led some of Hollywood’s top directors to close the door on future collaborations.
“Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back,” he said in a Q&A with the New York Times published Saturday. “It’s happened a million times to me.”
Aside from Nolan, Cage claimed Paul Thomas Anderson and Woody Allen are also directors that no longer want to work with him after he turned down their projects.
“They don’t call me back,” he claimed. “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.”
“Anyway, David did call me, and it showed a lot of class that he would call me back and invite me again, and I didn’t want to say no to him again because I have great respect for his talent,” he added.
Cage didn’t share what movie of Russell’s he turned down, but noted 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 said.
Page Six reached out to Nolan’s rep for comment, but didn’t immediately receive a response.
“Insomnia,” a psychological thriller following two Los Angeles homicide detectives investigating a murder in Alaska, was both critically acclaimed and a box office hit, grossing over $113 million worldwide.
Nolan is known for his star-studded casts, as well as working multiple times with the same actors, including Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy and more.
Nolan, 55, recently defended the casting in his highly anticipated “The Odyssey,” which comes out on July 17 — particularly, casting musician Travis Scott as a bard in his adaptation of the ancient Greek epic.
“I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” Nolan explained to Time.