Nicolas Cage Says Christopher Nolan “Won’t Call Me Back” After Turning Down ‘Insomnia’

A really interesting, in-depth interview with Nicolas Cage in The New York Times — highly recommend the piece. Cage is one of the most fearlessly inventive actors out there, and his thoughts on the art of acting make for a fascinating read.

There’s a notable passage where he talks about taking on the role of John Madden in David O. Russell’s upcoming “Madden.”

Cage explains he was surprised Russell offered him the role since the filmmaker had offered him a film many years earlier that Cage turned down. Cage praises Russell because, unlike most directors he’s declined in the past, he eventually came back with another offer.

Cage admits that rejecting projects from some marquee filmmakers has ended further communication with those directors. He says they “get their feelings hurt” and never approach him again after a refusal. More curiously, he actually names some of them — specifically Christopher Nolan, Woody Allen, and Paul Thomas Anderson — all of whom never came back to him with another project.

[David O. Russell] is the only director that I ever said no to who actually came back and offered me another movie. Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back. It’s happened a million times to me. It’s happened with Christopher Nolan, it’s happened with Woody Allen, it’s happened with Paul Thomas Anderson. They don’t call me back.

According to Cage, Nolan had offered him a role in “Insomnia,” which he passed on. When discussing PTA, Cage recalls that the director showed him an early short film starring Philip Baker Hall. That collaboration never materialized, though Cage implies it was during Anderson’s early career around the time of “Hard Eight.”

I gather the “Insomnia” role was either Robin Williams’s or Al Pacino’s, and I just can’t see Cage being an improvement on what those two actors delivered in that film.

He doesn’t mention the specific Woody Allen project, but it would have been quite the unique team-up had the two collaborated on a film together.

I don’t think Nicolas Cage will lose much sleep over this. He’s had quite the career. My personal time-capsule-worthy Cage performances would include “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Raising Arizona,” “Wild at Heart,” “Adaptation,” “Bad Lieutenant,” “Moonstruck,” “Bringing Out the Dead,” “Matchstick Men,” “Red Rock West,” “Lord of War,” “Face/Off,” “Mandy,” “Pig,” and “Dream Scenario.”