Nicolas Cage has seemingly built a strong portfolio with a variety of roles that highly impressed the audience. From getting associated with some of the big names in the filmmaking industry to making an impact with his Oscar-winning role in the 1995 film, Leaving Las Vegas, he has done it all. However, his glorious days eventually took a complete turn with his blockbuster list suddenly turning into a major disappointment.
This drastic change was seen after he bagged his first and only Oscar. It all happened due to his choice of projects that he took on after starring in the 1995 film, including getting his hands into the action genre. While many often argue over whether his choices were risky for his career or not, he knew what he wanted at that time.
Nicolas Cage Spoke About His Career Choices
In an interview by TotalFilm via GamesRadar, Nicolas Cage reflected on his flourishing acting career in the 1990s and 2000s which took a drastic fall as many of his projects were unable to leave a good impression at the box office.
After he got his first Oscar win, he indulged in trying a variety of genres, which ultimately made mixed opinions among the critics about his work quality. While there is no question about his insane versatility, he went straight into the action genre after his widely acclaimed project, Leaving Las Vegas. On knowing not everyone switches genres like he did, he shared in the interview,
“That was a first, I think, and it was a definite choice on my part to do something unexpected, to take a left turn that no one would really agree with. For me, that was the reason to do it – it was the wrong thing to do and, therefore, it was the right thing to do.”
Continuing to share about his career choices, he said in the same interview,
“I never like to stay too comfortable in anything I’m doing. If I’m comfortable then that means I’m resting and I don’t want to rest, I want to be challenging myself and, hopefully, challenging the audience as well.”
As to what affected him to make a sudden genre shift, it was nothing but his own will to keep on challenging himself as an actor. However, he revealed another interesting insight about a pivotal point in his career.
Not Everyone Was Happy With Nicolas Cage!
Given that he was quite talented in his art, he was bound to get more projects than many. However, his personal life contributed a lot to the drastic downfall of his career. Talking about how he went from drama to action genre, he said in the same interview that he was already working on The Rock (1996) after his Oscar-winning movie.
“To be fair, I was already shooting The Rock when Leaving Las Vegas went to the Academy Awards, so I didn’t know Vegas was gonna be critically acclaimed. But I had already made the conscious decision that I wanted to make many different kinds of movies and not be trapped in one genre.”
He continued,
“Now, consequently, that pissed a lot of my fellow actors off for some reason – I don’t know why.”
On clarifying that his colleagues didn’t like his act of trying his hands on several genres, he was firm that whatever decision he took was something he was sure about. While his career faced a major slump before he won the Academy for his performance, his career choices after that period left many puzzled. His work in the 2008 film, Bangkok Dangerous is often deemed to have turned his life upside down. Despite a budget of $45 million, the film was unable to gross over that, with critics panning the flick.
Source: GamesRadar
