Nicolas Cage revealed that he became petrified thinking about returning to Disney for another movie. His comments came after his widely acclaimed performance in 2021’s Pig. With Michael Sarnoski directing the project, it revolves around Oregon’s truffle hunter, Rob who must face his past chef status in the pursuit of finding his beloved pig.
This movie earned him critical acclaim with the actor finding his character relatable to his life. From making his feature film debut in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), he gained mainstream action-star status in the late 1990s with The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), the National Treasure film series (2004–2007) and the Ghost Rider film series among several others. Reflecting on his journey, he talked about how his work in Pig seemingly led him to think about returning to Disney.
Nicolas Cage Was Terrified to Return to Disney
In an interview with Variety, Cage reflected on the similarity between his character, Rob’s journey in Pig to his own especially due to the struggle with past fame both of them had to deal with. Despite being an A-lister in Hollywood, he chose to work in indie or small-budget projects in contrast to his big-cost films. Reflecting on his relatable character’s life, Nicolas Cage mentioned,
“I do feel that I’ve gone into my own wilderness and that I’ve left the small town that is Hollywood.”
He continued,
“I don’t know exactly why Rob left his stardom. It’s never fully explained, and I like that about the movie. But as for me, I don’t know if I’d want to go back.”
He further commented on having second thoughts about featuring in another Disney film.
“I don’t know if I’d want to go and make another Disney movie. It would be terrifying. It’s a whole different climate. There’s a lot of fear there.”
Given that big projects often compromise creative freedom which he can freely explore in small-budget movies, it made him think about his return to big projects.
Nicolas Cage Talked About The Pressure of Making Big-Budget Movies
Despite a great Hollywood career, the Oscar-winning actor had to face several limitations which eventually added more pressure in big-budget movies. While his 1990s-2000s era earned him huge paychecks, it was compromised with his creative freedom as an actor. He further shared his opinions in the same interview stating,
“When I was making Jerry Bruckheimer movies back-to-back, that was just a high pressure game. There were a lot of fun moments, but at the same time, there was also ‘We wrote this line. It has to be said this way.’”
He clearly shared his stance stating that indie movies provide more fluidity than blockbuster films.
“They’d put a camera on you and photograph you, and order you: ‘Now say the roller skate training wheels line.’ I’d say, ‘I’ll do that but I’d also like to try it this way.’ On independent movies, you have more freedom to experiment and be fluid. There’s less pressure and there’s more oxygen in the room.”
Not only he can get comparatively much creative freedom in indie projects, but he also gets less pressure. It is quite different than the plethora of things he had to deal with while working on big-budget films like the National Treasure film series.
