The 'City of Angels' actor reveals in a new interview that the numerous animals he raises at home have become his source of inspirations for some of his onscreen roles.
- Dec 23, 2022
AceShowbiz - Nicolas Cage claims his pet snake tried to "hypnotise" him. Having a range of animals at home, including a pig, a Maine Coon cat named Merlin, and terrapins, the 58-year-old actor says the creatures have served as inspiration for his work over the years.
"Sometimes the animals can help, especially the reptiles. At one time I had a cobra, and it would try to hypnotise me by showing me the pattern of an eye on its back and then turning around to attack. I used that in 'Ghost Rider', where my character would do that weird Axl Rose dancing and then attack," he said.
When it came to making "Pig", a "horrible nightmare" Nicolas had had about his feline friend proved invaluable to informing his performance. He said, "Merlin was a big inspiration for 'Pig'. When I first met [writer-director] Michael Sarnoski, we talked about what [my character] Rob is going through."
"Of course, it's the loss of the pig but also some deeper grief from the past. I had this horrible nightmare about Merlin, and that was a gift, in a weird way, because I felt the loss as if something terrible had really happened to him."
The "Wild at Heart" actor once wrote a movie script - but abandoned his writing ambitions almost immediately after running over the manuscript with his car. He told Empire magazine, "I wrote a script once. I had the manuscript on a laptop and I put it behind my car in my briefcase and forgot about it and ran over it."
"I thought, 'OK, I am done with writing.' I'm just going to be an actor and take risks with it, and try to push boundaries. This is it for me."
