Actor Nicolas Cage — known for his roles in films such as Raising Arizona, his Academy Award-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas, and the Lovecraftian horror film Color Out of Space, among others — has become a Hollywood legend in his own right over the years, but did you know he’s a member of celluloid royalty in that he is the nephew of famed director Francis Ford Coppola?
Coppola has helmed such classics as the soul-stirring Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now, the visually jaw-dropping gothic romance/horror Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the definitive mafia film saga, the Godfather trilogy, the latter of which Cage tried to convince his uncle to be a part — at least in the third installment.
The revelation comes to us from Cage himself in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, in which the actor was asked what movie he’d love to make but didn’t think anyone would let him, as part of a roundtable discussion with other stars.
Cage explained that when his uncle Coppola was doing Godfather III, he pleaded with the director to include him in the project, saying, “I really think I ought to be in your movie, Uncle. I really think it’s a good idea if you would cast me. I think I could play this part.”
Cage explained he was vying for the role that eventually went to Andy Garcia as Vincent Corleone, the illegitimate son of Michael Caan’s Sonny Corleone.
“I just see myself more as James Caan’s son, and he’s playing Sonny’s son. He’s not playing Michael’s son. He’s Sonny’s son. I just feel a little more James Caan,” Cage reportedly told his famous uncle.
However, the actor sadly was not chosen for the part.
“It just wasn’t going to happen. Nope, not going to happen. So that was a movie I didn’t get let in that I really wanted to be in,” Cage explained.
Cage has had a complicated relationship with the idea of nepotism in Hollywood. He changed his name from Nicolas Kim Coppola to be known professionally as Nicolas Cage — partly inspired by Marvel’s Luke Cage — in order to avoid handouts of roles just for being Francis’ nephew. However, earlier in life, at the age of fifteen, he begged his uncle in an outburst to do a screen test to prove he can act.
