Nicolas Cage actually turns down roles now and again, even though his recent spate of films seem to indicate all evidence to the contrary. And some of those roles turned out to be kind of a big deal. For instance, in a recent interview with Newsweek, the actor and purchaser of crazy-ass shit reveals he turned down the role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
Speaking about that role, as well as that of Neo in The Matrix—another role Cage says he was offered—the man who would’ve been King of Gondor admits they were roles he “probably would have benefited from if circumstances in my life allowed me to make them.” But don’t worry, because the upshot is that those movies can now be watched and enjoyed by him, because they don’t star Nic Cage.
But the thing is about those movies, I can watch them. I can enjoy them as an audience member. I don’t really watch my own movies. And so I genuinely do have the joy of watching these—especially with Lord of the Rings.”
He says his life at the time precluded him from “being able to travel and be away from home for three years.” Which, sure, family life and children and precious gift and blah blah blah—that’s no excuse for denying us the treat of watching the actor grimace, probably with a manic light in his eyes, while delivering an utterly bizarre line reading of, “By nightfall, these hills will be swarming with orcs.” We can picture it now, and it’s glorious.