Nicolas Cage reveals why he turned down roles in The Matrix and Lord of The Rings

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Nicolas Cage has opened up about previously rejecting roles in major film franchises to prioritise spending time with his family. The actor plays a fictionalised version of himself in the forthcoming action film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, starring alongside Pedro Pascal and Tiffany Haddish. “There’s no version of Nic Cage in reality that doesn’t want to spend time with his children,” he said in an interview with PEOPLE magazine. That’s a fact.” Weston Coppola Cage, Nicolas Cage and Riko Shabata at ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ after party in LA Weston Cage Coppola, also an actor, is now 31 and would have been between the ages of eight and 11 at the time the first films of the blockbuster franchises were being filmed.