Nicolas Cage has a new project The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which debuts in Theatres Friday April 22, where he will star alongside Tiffany Hadish and Pedro Pascal.
In the film, Cage plays an exaggerated version of his classic Hollywood persona, an actor, always seeking the next role to put himself back on the map. As a result, he’s not the most attentive dad to his 16-year-old daughter (played by Lily Sheen).
Cage has revealed, however, that in real life he’s always put his work second to family matters and that he turned down major roles in The Matrix and the Lord of the Rings franchises so he could stay home with his family.
In an interview with People, the Pig actor said that he could not go out of the country for three years to shoot movies because he needed to spend time with his son Weston.
The 58-year-old star told the outlet, “First and foremost… there’s no version of Nic Cage in reality that doesn’t want to spend time with his children.”
“There’s no version of Nic Cage that didn’t put family first over career,” he added. “I turned down Lord of the Rings and I turned down Matrix because I didn’t want to go to New Zealand for three years or Australia for three years because I needed to be home with my son Weston, that’s a fact.”
The actor concluded, “So there is a huge disparity between that Nick Cage in Massive Talent and the Nic Cage sitting in front of you right now.
Cage is a father to two sons Weston, 31, and Kal-El, 16. The actor and his wife Riko Shibata are expecting a baby later this year.
