Nicolas Cage Doesn’t Know If He’ll Ever Return To Hollywood — ‘It Would Be Terrifying’

Nicolas Cage was once one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. Starring in big-budget popcorn flicks such as City of Angels, National Treasure, and Ghost Rider, Cage gained significant wealth and fame between the 1990s and 2000s before mysteriously disappearing from the mainstream movie scene. 

Cage’s latest film, Pig, is a far cry from the more conventional movies he’s previously starred in. The indie film’s story centers around a truffle forager who loses his truffle-finding pig. Thus far, critics have been raving about Cage’s performance in the film, which proves the talented movie star never really lost his edge as an actor. 

Even though Cage has certainly proven that he still has the chops for the big screen, he isn’t necessarily interested in returning to Hollywood. He recently admitted that nothing about the mainstream film industry — and the lifestyle that comes with it — appeals to him. 

Nicolas Cage doesn’t know if he’ll go back to Hollywood

Cage found similarities between himself and his character in Pig during a recent interview with Variety, noting that neither of them has a desire for fame and adulation. 

“I do feel that I’ve gone into my own wilderness and that I’ve left the small town that is Hollywood,” Cage says. “I don’t know exactly why Rob left his stardom. It’s never fully explained, and I like that about the movie. But as for me, I don’t know if I’d want to go back. I don’t know if I’d want to go and make another Disney movie. It would be terrifying. It’s a whole different climate. There’s a lot of fear there.”

He hated working within the restraints of commercial films 

Cage initially lost interest in big-budget Hollywood movies around the time he was working on The Rock and Con Air in the late 1990s. Back then, he faced significant pressure from the studio to deliver performances that weren’t authentic to him, which caused a major strain. 

“When I was making Jerry Bruckheimer movies back-to-back, that was just a high-pressure game. There were a lot of fun moments, but at the same time, there was also ‘We wrote this line. It has to be said this way,’” Cage said. “They’d put a camera on you and photograph you, and order you: ‘Now say the roller skate training wheels line.’ I’d say, ‘I’ll do that but I’d also like to try it this way.’  On independent movies, you have more freedom to experiment and be fluid. There’s less pressure and there’s more oxygen in the room.”

Nicolas Cage had something to prove with his latest film ‘Pig’ 

Cage certainly has more freedom in his latest film, Pig,  no matter how odd it might seem. To the average moviegoer, it might not make sense why Cage would pick such an obscure movie to star in, but for Cage, the movie was the perfect opportunity to show his range. 

“I wanted to remind myself and also remind some folks perhaps in the audience or in the media that I could also apply myself to a much more quiet and measured performance style,” Cage says. “I had gone on this tear, mission almost, to kind of break form with film performance and what was considered good performance by being naturalistic or photo-realistic or minimalistic.”

Pig is now playing in select theaters.