All round
Nicolas Cage Refused to Play Aragorn in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy
Nicolas Cage doesn’t seem to turn down any role these days. From Left Behind to Season of the Witch, Cage hasn’t made the best role choices in the previous five years. However, there was a time when Cage was a bit more picky, and he turned down a job that may have been one of his career’s most important.
Nicolas Cage sat down with Newsweek to discuss his new horror thriller Pay the Ghost, as well as his long film résumé, which includes a few films he’s turned down. What stands out the most? Aragorn in Lord of the Rings and Neo in The Matrix.
Nicolas Cage has had a difficult time picking assignments in recent years. He’s been in a string of flops, with many of them going directly to VOD or home video (which isn’t always a negative thing in this day and age of streaming media, but it has been in his case). He got a lot of praise for his indie movie Joe, and he had a terrific cameo in Kick-Ass, but he hasn’t done anything noteworthy in a long time. He isn’t being picky at this point in his career. However, when he was at the pinnacle of his game in the late 1990s, he thought he could afford to pass on 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
“There certainly were movies that I probably would have benefited from if circumstances in my life allowed me to make them,” he remarked, adding that he doesn’t live with regret. “There were different things going on in my life at the time that precluded me from being able to travel and be away from home for three years,” Cage remarked of being given the part of Aragon.
He doesn’t say what those things are, but his family was most likely a factor in his decision to go to New Zealand for three years to shoot the films back-to-back. Cage, on the other hand, sees his choice to decline the job as a positive:
Trending:
“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.”
Nicolas Cage is a great comic book and fantasy aficionado, therefore these are unsurprisingly some of his favorite films. Nicolas Cage in the character of Aragorn would have been strange, although he does have similar parts in Season of the Witch and Outcast. Many fans are undoubtedly relieved he didn’t take the job after seeing those films. He doesn’t dwell on the missed opportunity.
“I don’t really have any regrets. I think regret is a waste of time. I try to always move forward as opposed to dwelling on the past or the movies that might have happened. There certainly were movies that I probably would have benefited from if circumstances in my life allowed me to make them.”
But, alas, his life didn’t permit it, so we’ll have to imagine what it would have been like to hear Cage say, “Let’s hunt some Orc.” Perhaps someone will get him to recite a few lines from the film at his next interview.
Popular Posts:
- Queen’s damning reply to Prince Harry’s ‘what Meghan wants, Meghan gets’ outburst
- Here’s Why Meghan Markle Cannot File Harry Divorce In US
- Meghan Markle ‘escorted out of Prince Charles’ garden party’ in unearthed video
- Here’s Why Meghan Markle Cannot File Harry Divorce In US
- Prince Harry ‘kept asking for more money’ and Prince Charles got ‘fed up’
- Prince Charles ‘deliberately’ left Meghan out of Archie’s birthday message
- Prince Harry and Meghan ‘blamed staff when they didn’t get their way’
- Prince Harry has been ‘brainwashed’, says biographer
- Meghan Markle blogged about Kate’s wedding before claiming she ‘didn’t know much about royals’
- REVENGE: Beatrice’s pregnancy announcement total dig at Meghan Markle
- Damage is done: Prince Harry warned rift with Prince Charles is widening beyond repair
- Meghan Markle Oprah interview claims debunked by own blog post
- Prince Harry faces Backlash for podcast interview, Duke ‘making too much noise’
- Queen and Charles deeply upset with Harry’s rants
- Harry and Meghan are ‘trolling the world’ with hidden photos Archie, says their biographer
- Prince Harry Demands wife Meghan Markle Be Part Of Princess Diana’s 60th Birthday Tribute Or He Won’t Show
- Harry and Meghan are ‘trolling the world’ with hidden photos Archie, says their biographer
- Meghan Markle’s Plastic Surgery
- Meghan and Harry CAN’T do another bombshell interview – ‘Can only do one’
- How Kate Middleton earned the Queen’s respect
- William and Kate prove they are NOT ‘trapped’ despite Harry claims
- Kate Middleton ‘won’t be walked over by Meghan Markle,’ says Jenny Eclair
- Meghan ‘wasn’t too keen’ on living in smaller place than Kate and William after royal wedding
- Meghan Markle was a ‘failure’ in Hollywood, biographer reveals
- Meghan and Harry are trying to start ‘alternate woke Royal Family,’ Expert says