Nicolas Cage definitely isn't the kind of actor you cast as any old "everyman" character,
but hey, that's exactly why his fan base loves him.
While so many people hide their eccentricities away from the world, Cage seems to wear them
on his sleeve.
Here are a few of the weirdest.
It may sound like something someone would fake as a prank, but the real Nicolas Cage
really did lay down the winning bid of over $270,000 on the gargantuan skull of a Tyrannosaurus
bataar.
So why did he actually want a dinosaur skull?
Well, nobody's really sure, but prehistoric remains must have some weird appeal to A-list
actors, because Cage wasn't the only one bidding on the skull either.
One of his top competitors was fellow actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
This whole thing is probably best explained by the fact that dropping massive amounts
of cash on weird stuff is kind of Cage's thing.
Unfortunately for him, his dinosaur skull purchase didn't turn out so well.
Six years later, Cage got the sad news that his prized skull wasn't really his: The seller,
a guy named Eric Prokopi, had stolen the skull from the Gobi desert in Mongolia.
Obviously, the theft wasn't Cage's fault, but the actor amiably agreed to give the skull
back to the original owners.
All in all, this whole scam just goes to show why you should never trust an independent
dinosaur skull retailer, no matter how trustworthy their website looks.
Let's face it: house cats are neurotic enough even before you throw a load of hallucinogens
into the mix.
But what are you supposed to do if you accidentally leave your magic mushrooms lying around and
your furry friend licks them right up?
This sounds like a pretty big "oops" moment, but anyone with the Cage mindset will know
just how to handle a tripping cat: by joining them.
Cage explained to David Letterman in 2010 that when his cat, Lewis, gobbled up the actor's
mushrooms as if they were catnip, he decided the only decent thing to do was to take mushrooms
with him, in order to provide a guiding hand to his spaced-out cat.
"And Lewis on the desk across from the bed for hours staring at each other."
Evidently, Cage and Lewis bonded over this shared experience.
"But he would stare at me, and I had no doubt that he was my brother."
Sadly, there's been no word on whether the pair have tripped together since.
If you've ever watched a Nicolas Cage film then you have probably noticed how utterly
engrossed Nicolas Cage becomes in every role he plays.
According to the AV Club, Cage gets into the heads of his characters by using a self-created
acting discipline that he calls "Nouveau Shamanic," as a tribute to the shamans of ancient history.
For example, when preparing himself for Ghost Rider, Cage's Nouveau Shamanic approach was
to apply "Afro-Caribbean paint" to himself and put on a costume composed of priceless
Egyptian artifacts in order to evoke the feeling of being an extra-dimensional spirit.
Later, Cage clarified to LA Weekly that Nouveau Shamanic wasn't something he really invented:
It was inspired by a book titled The Way of the Actor, which described how, thousands
of years ago, the medicine men and shamans of ancient tribes were actually similar to
actors.
They'd act out the villagers' problems, and try to lose themselves in their own imaginations
in order to bring something back that would "reflect the concerns of the group".
Cage's approach to acting is intended as a tribute to these bygone customs.
Ever want to live in a castle?
Well, Nicolas Cage did, so obviously he decided to buy his own real-life castle in the German
state of Bavaria.
Cage became interested in establishing a residence in Bavaria since his mother's ancestors originated
from the region, and as soon as he saw the castle he fell in love with it.
Cage's astonishing real estate purchases don't end there, either.
Cage also once owned a private, 45-acre island in the Bahamas, though he sold it in 2008.
On top of that, he also once owned the LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans, which previously housed
19th-century serial killer Delphine LaLaurie.
Cage bought the residence, which he calls "the most haunted house in America," in order
to write a horror novel.
He later admitted:
"I didn't get too far with the novel."
Most major celebrities end up being followed by a creepy fan or two at some point in their
careers, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Nicolas Cage has some of the weirdest stalker stories
around.
In an interview with Parade, Cage said that, when he was filming Bringing Out the Dead,
he became quite unsettled by the sudden appearance of a silent performer in a mime costume.
Evidently, the mime had somehow got past security and kept doing their strange antics on the
set.
Apparently, the producers were similarly weirded out, and ordered the mime removed.
He never came back, as far as anyone knows, anyway.
But this isn't the only invasive encounter Nicolas Cage has experienced.
Cage said in 2011 that he had been the victim of a home invasion, having been woken at 2
a.m. by a naked man standing at the foot of his bed, wearing nothing but Cage's leather
jacket and licking a fudgesicle.
Cage stayed calm, talked the guy into leaving his house, and didn't press charges.
In Hollywood, actors often get cast in a role, only to eventually back out for one reason
or another.
Sometimes, they're replaced after filming commences.
All of fairly standard procedure for production on a movie.
Nonetheless, it's still pretty crazy just how many iconic film roles almost featured
Nicolas Cage.
For example, Superman is generally seen as the ultimate boy scout superhero, but Cage
almost brought a darker, lonelier, and altogether more haunting Kal-El to life in the 1990s.
He was also supposed to play John Constantine before the role went to Keanu Reeves.
Over on the Marvel side, Cage was originally the studio's favorite choice to portray Spider-Man
villain the Green Goblin.
The parade of "almost-Caged" roles doesn't stop there, either.
In 2016, Cage was offered the role of President Ronald Reagan but found himself worried that
the part might "damage his career."
But it's even crazier that he was offered the part of Neo in The Matrix, as well as
Aragorn in Lord of the Rings.
He has no hard feelings about missing out on a stint in Middle-earth, though, having
explained that he believed what Viggo Mortensen did with the role was "terrific."
These days, some people prefer to stick to a vegetarian diet, often for moral reasons.
Meanwhile, others go vegan.
Many people eat meat, but are strict about what kinds of meat they consume, whether it's
due to a desire to keep kosher, or a preference for grass-fed, organic beef.
Nicolas Cage, however, practices a rather more specific kind of diet.
In an interview with The Sun, Cage explained that he chooses the animals he eats based
on how dignified their mating rituals are.
For example, he'd be comfortable if you put birds or fish on his dinner table, but pigs?
Not so much.
That said, this has nothing to do with his personal feelings toward the animals themselves,
as he's stated on many occasions, he's a big animal lover, with a "fascination with fish,
birds, whales, sentient life, insects, [and] reptiles."
His views on their mating rituals are only a factor when it comes to what's actually
on his plate.
Of course, if there's one thing you can count on him not liking…
"No not the bees!
Not the bees!
Ahhh!
They're in my eyes!
Ahhh!"
Obviously, everyone deserves the right to make their own decisions about how their remains
are handled after their death, no matter how crazy they may be.
As you might have guessed, Nicolas Cage isn't interested in having his ashes scattered over
a rolling meadow.
No, instead Cage plans to follow the lead of the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, and have
his remains forever housed in a pyramid.
What's more, the pyramid has already been built.
Cage's rather unusual tomb now stands in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the famous New Orleans
graveyard that also contains the tomb of local voodoo legend Marie Laveau.
Cage's pyramid is 9 feet tall, carved out of solid stone, and has the Latin phrase Omnia
Ab Uno scrawled on the front, which means "Everything from one."
Obviously, Cage isn't taking up space in the tomb just yet, but its unusual shape has already
made it a local tourist attraction.
Meanwhile, some people have theorized Cage's pyramid obsession is a sign of his membership
to the Illuminati, but let's face it, the more likely truth is that he's just a pretty
weird dude.
The best pranks always carry a certain level of risk, but when Nicolas Cage decided to
punk an entire passenger airplane a couple decades back, he probably took it just a little
too far.
Recounting the whole incident to David Letterman, Cage explained that about halfway through
the flight, he somehow got a hold of the PA system, and announced over the speakers that
he was the pilot, and "wasn't feeling very well," which definitely isn't something you
want to hear when you're miles up in the sky.
Understandably, the actual pilot was pretty upset about the whole thing.
"And I quote, he said, quote, 'Not cool.
Not f---ing cool,' end quote."
Predictably, law enforcement weren't too big on the whole thing, either.
When the aircraft landed, six armed police officers met him at the door.
A far bigger problem than that, however, was that one of Cage's fellow passengers was infamous
Hollywood wild child Charlie Sheen, who, unbeknownst to Cage, had a bag of coca cola wrapped around
his ankle.
Somehow, Cage managed to talk his way out of the situation, and no one suffered any
legal trouble over it.
Ever wonder how Nicolas Cage managed to snag such a cool surname?
Well, it turns out "Cage" is actually a tribute to the superhero comics the actor grew up
on.
Cage, being a nephew to Francis Ford Coppola, was actually originally named Nicolas Coppola.
When he went into acting, Cage wanted to carve his own path instead of just riding his uncle's
coat-tails, so he took the surname of the bulletproof Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage.
Perhaps intentionally, this actually mirrors the path of the Marvel character, whose birth
name was "Carl Lucas" before he ran afoul of the law.
Not surprisingly, when Cage's third wife Alice Kim became pregnant, Nicolas once again looked
toward his favorite comic books to find a name.
The couple ended up naming their boy Kal-El Cage, as a tribute to Superman.
Whether Kal-El's Kryptonian powers will one day kick in has yet to be seen.
This one might sound a little silly, but let's be honest here, if there were any major actor
who was going to be unmasked as some kind of immortal creature, it would be Nicolas
Cage.
Back in 2011, a certain eBay listing set the internet ablaze: it featured a yellow photo
dating back to the U.S. Civil War, which the seller claimed as proof that Nicolas Cage
was actually a vampire.
The seller, who wanted $1 million for the item, argued that Cage was probably an undead
being who reinvented himself every 75 years or so.
The whole thing was done in a fairly tongue in cheek manner, but it can't be argued that
the guy in that photo really did look a lot like Nicolas Cage.
Joke or not, the vampire story got people talking so much that by the following year,
Cage himself was forced to comment on the matter.
Though Cage conceded a resemblance to the man in the photo, he shot down the internet's
fantastical explanation.
"Now, look, I don't drink blood, and last time I looked in the mirror, I have a reflection,
so I'm not going with the vampire theory."
Of course, that's exactly what a vampire would say.
Still, that's his story for now and appears to be sticking to it.
But if a new celebrity, politician, wizard, or superhero emerges in 75 years' time with
Cage's appearance and weird quirks, the question will finally be put to rest.
Unlike Cage himself, in that case, who presumably never will.
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