Nicolas Cage has claimed that directors Christopher Nolan, Woody Allen and Paul Thomas Anderson stopped offering him projects after he turned down roles in their films. The actor said David O Russell was the only director to approach him again after a rejection.
“David O Russell offered me a movie a million years ago,” Cage said on the New York Times podcast The Interview. “It was a good movie, and he offered it and I said no, and he’s the only director that I ever said no to who actually came back and offered me another movie.” Cage stars in Russell’s forthcoming film Madden, playing the late football coach and broadcaster John Madden.
“Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back. It’s happened a million times to me,” Cage said. “It’s happened with Christopher Nolan, it’s happened with Woody Allen, it’s happened with Paul Thomas Anderson. They don’t call me back.” He said Nolan offered him a role in the 2002 psychological thriller Insomnia, though he did not specify which character he had been considered for.
Cage said his decision to work on Madden had a lot to do with Russell’s willingness to approach him again. “David did call me, and it showed a lot of class that he would call me back and invite me again,” Cage said. “And I didn’t want to say no to him again because I have great respect for his talent.”
Cage is also set to star in Spider-Noir, Prime Video’s live-action adaptation of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir comics. The series casts him as an ageing private investigator and superhero in 1930s New York. Madden is scheduled to be released on Prime Video on 26 November 2026.
