Nic Cage and Seth Rogen Had a Meeting—Here's What Happened Next

I have to admit, one of my favorite things about Hollywood is hearing stories that involve Nic Cage. It seems like his legend is bigger than his acting career now, which is a shame, because he is one of the greatest living actors... when he wants to be. 

This week, Seth Rogen was on Howard Stern, promoting his new book, Yearbook, which tells many of his stories within Hollywood. The topic of Cage came up, and Rogen began to tell a hilarious story. 

It turns out, Rogen and Cage's paths crossed when they were casting the 2011 movie, The Green Hornet. Cage was being considered. During preliminary calls, Cage began telling them he wanted to play his character (presumably the villain) bald, with tattooed hair. 

Rogen said, “And we were like, ‘Okay…’ We were kind of wrapping our heads around it.” 

A few days later, Cage called Rogen back and nixed his own suggestion, because he was thinking about getting tattooed hair in real life... Rogen thought it was a joke, but it wasn't.

Rogen was also worried, because Cage said he wanted to play the role as a “white Bahamian man.” Rogen said that “set off a lot of alarms,” but he decided that they should discuss the project at dinner with producer Amy Pascal and Cage before any decisions were made. 

Rogen said, “And I remember going there with Evan [Goldberg], my partner, and just being like, ‘I just don’t want him to do it in front of us. I’ll just be so uncomfortable.’ And I remember Evan being like, ‘He’s not going to do it. He’ll talk about it. He won’t launch into it. That would be too much.'”

But guess what? He did do it. He performed an entire monologue in a Jamaican accent.

Rogen said,  “[His] monologue was not in the script. Nor did it have anything to do with the script. At which point I was like, ‘I don’t think he’s even read the script.'”

As you can imagine, the whole room was shocked.

Rogen said, “It ends and it is like he had just completed a backflip, and he’s waiting for the applause. At which point everyone looks to me to express the group reaction. I was like, ‘It was okay. Cool. Thanks. We should talk about it. That’s not how we pictured the character.'”

Of course, with no real reaction, a deflated Cage took matters into his own hands, apparently leaving.

“We all sit down for dinner and almost right away he just gets up and leaves,” Rogen said.

He did not get the part.

This is an amazingly fun story and just a glimpse into what it's like casting a movie in Hollywood. But it's also a good example of taking risks, and Cage clearly has his own creative process, which can be inspiring in itself.

What are some of the weirdest casting stories you've ever seen? Let me know in the comments. 

Source: Howard Stern