Having carved out a well-earned reputation as one of the most eccentric actors in the industry a very long time ago, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to discover that Nicolas Cage has embraced the stranger side of celebrity.
In fact, the actor admitted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the Renfield red carpet premiere that fans would occasionally slap him in the face at the airport, but he didn’t seem to mind. Of course, A-listers being struck in the chops opened up a massive can of worms when it involved Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars, but the idiosyncratic Cage simply viewed it as part of the job.
“For the longest time, back from Moonstruck, I would walk to the airport and people just had a habit of saying, ‘Snap out of it!’ from Moonstruck – the Cher ‘snap out of it’ – and I did get slapped a few times. Oh yeah, I did. And that, you know, it’s part of the job.”
It’s perfectly fitting given Cage’s famed eccentricities that a line of dialogue initially spoken by Cher ultimately led down a path that culminated in overzealous appreciators of the Academy Award-winning classic not just reciting dialogue in his face, but going full method and dishing out a swift hand across the mush for good measure.
These days, it’s very unlikely anyone would get close enough to a worldwide superstar to even contemplate something similar, but at least Cage has taken it in his stride. Thankfully, the Moonstruck generation is probably too old to do something so bold in 2023.
