10 Utterly Insane Things You Didn't Know About Nicolas Cage

Mel Judson
Updated November 27, 2023 77.5K views 10 items
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Vote up the stories that encapsulate the strange magnetism and unpredictability of Nic Cage.

Everybody knows that Nicolas Cage changed his name from "Nicolas Coppola" to avoid nepotism since he's part of the Coppola (as in Francis Ford Coppola) family. Everybody knows that he was almost in a weird Superman movie written by Kevin Smith where Superman didn't fly. And yes, everybody knows that his namesake is Luke Cage, the Marvel comics character. This article isn't for that. That's beginner-level Nicolas Cage knowledge. You know, real Day One sh*t. This is for the stuff that you actually (probably) didn't know. You should know, at most, 3 things on this list. If you know more than that, then you either have a serious Internet addiction, are a huge next-level Cage fan, or you are Nicolas Cage. Thank you for reading this, Mr. Cage. The Rock is a great favorite film. Is the car chase in that movie what inspired you to make Gone in 60 Seconds?

Sorry. Back to you, you're reading this. 

Nicolas Cage stories usually involve people seeing him on airplanes, in Vegas coming out of liquor stores at 9 in the morning, at Target, or weirdly at a pet store (he has a lot of pets). This list doesn't even mention all the crazy sh*t that Nicolas cage has bought over the years. He's got poisonous snakes and anti-venom on the wall in case someone gets bitten by one of them, a whole metric f*ckton of purebred dogs, a castle, but still, those aren't on here.

This is a list of WTF Nicolas Cage stories that'll give you at least one thing to pull out at a party or family gathering, and will make you look so well-read that everyone's heads will grow to the size of that one Nicolas Cage picture where his head is a bird. Their minds will be blown, that's what is happening in that awesome simile. You're about to reach the height of the Hollywood scholar you were meant to be. This is your destiny. And maybe, just maybe, you can tell these facts to Nicolas Cage and he'll finally love you. Did this get weird? Yes? Well, it's about to get a whole lot weirder. Strap in, b*tches. 

And if you're a fan, check out our Nick Cage movies list and cast your vote -- we know you wanna.

  • 1

    He Once Woke Up To A Naked Stranger Eating A Fudgsicle At The Foot Of His Bed

    Nicolas Cage is the only person where if you hear that he was woken up by a naked stranger eating a Fudgsicle you think, "okay, sure, yeah, that makes sense." 

    Anyway, so that happened to him.

    When he was promoting the film Trespass (directed by Joel Schumacher), Cage disclosed that he'd actually lived through a home invasion himself. To wit: 

    “It was two in the morning. I was living in Orange County at the time and was asleep with my wife. My two-year old at the time was in another room. I opened my eyes and there was a naked man wearing my leather jacket eating a Fudgsicle in front of my bed...”

    He said he knows it sounds funny, but that it was horrifying at the time. The impressive part is that he could identify exactly what kind of frozen treat he was eating, and that it was his jacket (maybe the guy got to keep the jacket, who can say). He started talking to the man and led him out of the house where the police were waiting. Cage didn't press charges because the man was severely mentally ill. 

    After that, he couldn't stay in the house again and moved to the Bahamas. Because that's what you did after suffering from a really weird, traumatizing home invasion; you move to the Bahamas. At least you do if you're Nicolas Cage. Again, are you Nicloas Cage? Because that would be so, so great. 

    309 votes
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  • 2

    He Chooses Which Animals He Eats Based On How They Have Sex

    As Reddit user The_Fassbender put it, "“Nick, you've already won the award for Weirdest Human Being In All Of History. You can chill the f*ck out now. The rest of this is all overkill.” 

    According to The Sun, an organization that at some point had an employee who had to hear him say this out loud and hope to God that their tape recorder/iPhone didn't give out in the middle of the sentence, Cage said, "I love all animals. I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales - sentient life - insects, reptiles.

    "I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds. But pigs, not so much. So I don't eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl."

    So next time you're tempted to yell at one of your vegetarian friends for having "dumb reasons" for their eating habits, just keep this in your pocket and let people do what they do. At least you're not going out to a restaurant with Nicolas Cage for the 90th time and hearing him say this to new friends that you were hoping would just think you're normal for once. 

    206 votes
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  • 3

    He Was Stalked By A Mime

    He Was Stalked By A Mime

    Leave it to Nicolas Cage to get stalked by a male mime. Not some dude who threatens to eat his skin, or your run-of-the mill Single White Female replacement junkie, or even the kind of stalker that sends you nice cards all the time, but a silent, weird, useless mime. 

    Now, you may not understand how one gets stalked by a mime, but the only explanation that could possibly work is what he told Parade magazine

    “I was being stalked by a mime — silent but maybe deadly. Somehow, this mime would appear on the set of Bringing Out the Dead and start doing strange things. I have no idea how it got past security. Finally, the producers took some action and I haven’t seen the mime since. But it was definitely unsettling.”

    Whyyy- Why? Why? There are so many unanswered questions, like what exactly was the mime doing that was so "strange" and why was it seen as stalking? Also, does Nic Cage just makes weird fart jokes when describing terrifying life events? Is that a thing? Maybe the mime was method and would not break silence to explain himself and was warded off by the producers for good.

    But, okay, if you're going to stalk someone, why dress up as a classic mime? Maybe the person watched a bunch of old movies where there were different kinds of cabaret dancers, elephants, and other exotic characters on movie lots and he thought "okay, I can do a mime, nobody will the wiser!" He probably thought it was a very good disguise just from watching Pee Wee's Big Adventure. This is the only possible explanation. End of speculation. 

    138 votes
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  • 4

    Dog The Bounty Hunter Bailed Him Out Of Jail In 2011

    Dog The Bounty Hunter Bailed Him Out Of Jail In 2011

    "I am a truly dedicated fan of Mr. Cage and will not be granting any interviews about my client as I wish to protect his privacy." 
    - Dog the Bounty Hunter

    Yes, Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman  posted the $11,000 bond to get his friend Nicolas Cage out of jail after he was arrested for public drunkenness, domestic violence, and disturbing the peace in New Orleans. Ah, the Big Easy. You bring out the best in Monsieur Cage.  

    Cage allegedly got into a heated fight with his wife in a tattoo parlor. They took it to the street, where he pushed her, proceeded to punch a bunch of cars, and yelled at police to arrest him. Then they did. His wife at the time didn't want to press charges.

     

    Mr. The Bounty Hunter added:

    “ I performed my duties as a bail bondsman and not in connection with our show. This is what I do for a living. There are two sides of my job: I release my clients after they have been arrested; and pick them up if they don't show up in court. I do not believe the latter will be the case for Mr. Cage.”

    182 votes
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  • 5

    He Chose A Venomous Copperhead Over A Non-Venomous One For A Scene So He Could "Relax"

    He Chose A Venomous Copperhead Over A Non-Venomous One For A Scene So He Could "Relax"

    You know those people who tell you that coffee "makes them tired" and that certain things "don't work on them," etc.? Nicolas Cage is clearly one of those people, and he brought it to whole new extremes when he was filming a movie where they had a four-page scene that required a literal snake in the grass.

    A copperhead snake, to be exact.

    They had a snake with no poison/venom in it and Cage said, for realsies, “You know what, I think we really need to take a chance here and use a real snake and pick it up and use it in the scene... It’s a big scene and I think it will relax me.” It will relax him.

    Luckily the interviewer over at The Talks had the same question you just did and Cage answered “I’m one of those people that when I do stunts or drink a lot of coffee it calms me down. And I like what it can offer in terms of creativity – you could feel the focus on set. You don’t have to act. If you can avoid acting and get to the truth of it and be in the moment, something magical will happen.”

    142 votes
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  • 6

    He Got A Pet Octopus To "Help Him With His Acting"

    He Got A Pet Octopus To "Help Him With His Acting"

    Now, everyone knows Nicolas Cage bought over 50 cars, two islands, a handful of yachts, a castle, a jet, and a dinosaur skull. That's some basic sh*t. But, did you know he also bought an octopus? Octopuses are basically aliens: they have at least 12 tissues found in no other animal, possess incredibly advanced problem-solving abilities, and attract a particular kind of human being: Nicolas Cage. 

    As part of what was allegedly a $276,000 spending spree, he got two poisonous king cobras and an octopus. He bought a whole damn octopus. His excuse for buying the octopus, though, was that it would, "help him with his acting." What? How? How, Mr. Cage? Maybe this is something that he said so that he could write it off. And maybe he didn't understand tax law that well. And maybe that's why he is where he is today. Aw. 

    197 votes
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  • 7

    He Hijacked A Plane's PA And Almost Got Arrested With Charlie Sheen (Who Had Cocaine)

    Nicolas Cage keeps some strange company. God knows how you become friends with Nicolas Cage. But this one time Nicolas Cage, halfway through a flight he was on with Charlie Sheen, got on the PA and told everyone he was the pilot, that he was not feeling well, and that he was losing control of the aircraft. You know, that ol' hilarious chestnut. 

    After they landed, the pilot came out and yelled at Cage, "not cool. Not f*cking cool!" At this point, the door to the airplane came open and there were six armed police officers waiting for them. This is when Nicolas Cage's blind luck came in. He pointed to Sheen and said, "he had nothing to do with it." 

    Sheen had an eight ball of cocaine wrapped around his ankle, by the way. 

    He then just "very gingerly, very delicately, and very politely talked my way out of going to airport jail."

    BONUS: Charlie Sheen and Nicolas Cage once flew from LA to San Francisco (they really should have a reality show where the two just go on domestic flights) and Cage referred to one of the flight attendants as a "Goddess" and that's where Sheen got the idea to call women "Goddesses." Which, if you didn't know, is a thing he does. For some reason. It's what he calls the women in his life. And it's weird.  

    223 votes
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  • 8

    He Once Took Mushrooms With His Cat

    He Once Took Mushrooms With His Cat

    Of course Nicolas Cage did hallucinogenic mushrooms with his cat. It makes perfect sense. He just loves animals, man. He's had a wide array of pets, so it's actually kind of interesting to think about why he chose his cat. He's owned an octopus, a variety or purebred dogs, two rare albino copperhead snakes, and probably a whole lot of other random animals... so why the cat? 

    The answer: the cat ate a pile of mushrooms that were sitting in the fridge.

    The cat was able to get the fridge open and take the mushrooms, which he would eat regularly. The cat's name was Lewis, by the way. Cage and Lewis, thick as thieves, took the 'shrooms together when Cage saw him eating the bag from the fridge again. He thought he may as well join along, so that the cat wasn't tripping alone. (That's how you know you love your cat, by the way.)

    “I remember lying on my bed for hours and Lewis was on the desk across my bed and we just stared at each other for hours - not moving, just staring at each other, and I had no doubt that he was my brother…”

    David Letterman really used to get the best stories out of Nicolas Cage. Since Cage told this story while he was promoting The Sorcerer's Apprentice (a Disney movie) he reassured the crowd that he doesn't do things like that anymore.

    Of course, this admission only lets you know that he probably does acid with the cat now and that they probably wear facepaint together and play Pink Floyd while doing "adult coloring books" all the while making sure they very carefully stay inside the lines. 

    137 votes
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  • 9

    He's Going To Be Buried In A Pyramid

    You know whenever you think about winning the lottery and the first thing that occurs to you is houses, cars, traveling, helping out your loved ones, and generally fixing your life? Well, this is what happens when you've done all that and have more money than God (before the IRS takes it all away). You decide to buy a burial plot in New Orleans (if you're as obsessed with New Orleans as Nicolas Cage is) and you decide that you're going to know what your tomb looks like before you die, and that said tomb will be a pyramid. 

    The Ghost Rider himself has actually bought other property in New Orleans. For example, he bought a haunted house there before he had to give it up due to his tax issues, since that's a thing that totally sane people do all the time.  

    The grave is currently unoccupied, stands at nine feet tall, and is made entirely of stone. It has no name on it yet, but sits there waiting for Nicolas Cage's untimely demise. He's never told anyone, publicly, why he bought it, but the reasoning is somewhere along the lines of "I-I-I I mean, I don't know. Okay? It was there. YOU try not buying it!" Either that or he has some mystical reasoning that goes back to ancient Egypt that would take about three stiff drinks to be able to sit through.

    138 votes
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  • 10

    He Passionately Sang 'Purple Rain' At A Karaoke Bar After He Split With His Wife 

    He Passionately Sang 'Purple Rain' At A Karaoke Bar After He Split With His Wife 

    In April 2019 Nicolas Cage married his long-time girlfriend Erika Koike in Vegas, and yes, they were inebriated - at least that's what Cage claimed when he filed for an annulment four days after the union. Moments before they walked down the isle, TMZ alleges the couple was spotted having a heated argument. Whether to blow off some steam, because he apparently makes impulsive decisions when he is intoxicated, or because he is truly heart broken, Cage took the stage at a karaoke bar in Koreatown, Los Angeles, just after filing the annulment, and sang a very emotional version of Prince's "Purple Rain." 

    Cage screams aggressively into the mic and paces back and forth on stage as attendees sing along, "Laughing in the purple rain/Purple rain, purple rain/Purple rain, purple rain." Kioke did not appear to be in attendance. 

    69 votes
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