Nicolas Cage admits a string of box office bombs hurt his mainstream career

After winning an Academy Award for Best Actor thanks to 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas, Nicolas Cage’s next career move was as unpredictable as it was successful. The star decided to get into the blockbuster business, and within the space of twelve months he’d become the biggest action hero in Hollywood.

Of course, that’s to be expected when you headline The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off between the summers of 1996 and 1997, all three of which made big money at the box office, and are still widely lauded as a trio of the decade’s finest popcorn hits.

The following decade wasn’t so kind, though, with Cage enduring a string of notable flops that included John Woo’s Windtalkers, Next, Bangkok Dangerous and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. In an interview with Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, the 57 year-old admitted that he was pushed out of the studio system as a result, before lavishing praise on Michael Sarnoski, writer and director of this year’s acclaimed Pig.

“I knew after a couple of flops that I had been marginalized in the studio system; and I wasn’t going to get invited by them. I always knew that it would take a young filmmaker who would come back or remember some movies I had made and know that I might be right for his script and rediscover me. And that’s why he’s not just Michael, he’s Archangel Michael. This wouldn’t be happening if he didn’t have the open mind to say, ‘Come with me.’”

Cage did confirm already that he doesn’t have much interest in heading back to the world of effects-driven pyrotechnics, but that hasn’t stopped him from embarking on the hottest streak his career has seen in a long time, which is set to culminate in his hotly-anticipated turn as Dracula in Renfield.