This actor, who belongs to one of Hollywood’s most famous dynasties, is a National Treasure but in his personal life, he’s trapped in a “quiet, horrible nightmare.”
The Family Man actor, who once bought a seat on a plane for his child’s imaginary friend, is now living in a “hostile environment” created by his son’s ex-wife, who’s preventing him from meeting his four-year-old twin granddaughters.
Keep reading to learn the identity of the star whose name change was inspired by a superhero!
When this actor was only 15, he was seated in a car with his uncle, one of Hollywood’s leading filmmakers, and begged him for a chance to appear in one of his award-winning films.
“Give me a screen test, I’ll show you acting. There was just silence in the car,” said the star, who’s proudly bizarre both on and off screen.
As a 17-year-old, the actor paved his own path to stardom and earned a minor role in the 1982 hit, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a coming-of age cult favorite.
“I was the brunt of jokes because my name was still Coppola,” says Nicholas Cage, who was born in 1962 as Nicholas Kim Coppola.
“People would not stop saying things like, ‘I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning,’ because of Apocalypse Now…and it made it hard to work and I said, ‘I don’t need this,’ and changed it to Cage,” the star explains of dropping the surname that connected him to his famous relative, Francis Ford Coppola.
Next, explaining why he chose Cage, he says, “It’s a combination of Luke Cage from Marvel comics, who was a character I liked, also named Power Man, and John Cage, the avant-garde composer. Speaks volumes about everything I’ve been up to ever since.”
His first starring role with Cage as his last name came in 1983’s Valley Girl and the anonymity he said made him feel as if he “had this weight come off my body.”
“Wow, I really can do this. And I felt liberated by that experience,” he tells Hollywood Reporter. “And you can see it in Valley Girl that I’m free. Whereas in Fast Times, or even Rumble Fish, I’m somewhat stuck,” he says, referring to his appearance in 1983’s Rumble Fish, a film directed by his uncle.
Over the next several years, Cage worked in back-to-back films, earning the reputation as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors.
In 1988, he earned Golden Globe nominations for Moonstruck with Cher and Honeymoon in Vegas with Sarah Jessica Parker.
It was also the same year he met actor Christina Fulton, who in December 1990 gave birth to his first son, Weston Coppola Cage, an actor who appeared as the younger version of his dad in the 2014 film Rage.
Cage, who earned an Oscar for his 1995 role in Leaving Las Vegas, also shares a son Kal-El (Superman’s birth name) born in 2005 with his third wife Alice Kim, and daughter August Francesca (born 2022) with his fifth wife, Riko Shibata.
Cage was also famously married to Patricia Arquette (1995 to 2001) and Lisa Marie Presley (2002), whom he filed for divorce only months later.
Speaking with People, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent actor says that family comes “first and foremost.”
“There’s no version of Nick Cage in reality that doesn’t want to spend time with his children…There’s no version of Nick Cage that didn’t put family first over career,” says the star of Raising Arizona.
He adds, “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.”
Offering evidence to that, actor Minnie Driver once said: “Was once on a plane with [Nicholas Cage] and his son and a seat had also been purchased for his son’s imaginary friend.”
Weston Coppola Cage
To this day the Adaptation star has a very tight bond with his children, and two of his grandchildren, Lucian (born 2014) and Sorin (2016), who Weston shares with his second wife.
The Tale of Resilience: Carrot, Egg, or Coffee Bean?
The grandma took the carrot out of the pot after a while and asked her granddaughter to explain what had happened to it. The granddaughter said that the carrot had become softer due to the heating water. The sage woman nodded before going on to the following pot.
She then removed the egg and asked about its metamorphosis. The granddaughter retorted that the hot water had solidified the egg. After considering her granddaughter’s observations, the grandma nodded once more.
The wise woman finally looked at the pot of coffee beans. She requested her granddaughter to tell her thoughts about the water that the coffee beans had been submerged in and the coffee beans themselves. The granddaughter retorted that the water had been transformed by the coffee beans, giving it a fresh flavor and scent.
The grandmother thoughtfully asked her granddaughter which of the three things—the carrot, the egg, or the coffee beans—she thought she looked most like.
After giving the topic some thought, the young woman understood the deep lesson her grandmother’s straightforward yet poignant illustration held. She realized that, similar to how boiling water shapes an egg and a carrot, life’s challenges may mold us in various ways.
When faced with hardship, the carrot, which is initially tough and stubborn, softens and becomes malleable. In a similar vein, when faced with hardship, the egg hardens with its protective shell. But the coffee beans, the epitome of tenacity and willpower, have the ability to change their situation and give them courage and optimism.
The granddaughter was very affected by this moving story. It reminded her that she had options when faced with obstacles in life. Adversity might either harden her and rob her of her fragility, like the egg, or it may make her weak and pliable, like the carrot. Alternatively, she may take a cue from the coffee beans and use her inner fortitude and fortitude to change the course of events and reach new heights for herself.
Which one then are you? Which are you, the coffee bean, the egg, or the carrot? Never forget that every obstacle presents a chance for development, transformation, and perseverance. Accept the lesson from this story and strive to be the coffee bean that rises above hardship, motivating others in the process.
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