Nicolas Cage may’ve used that cash for one more shrunken head.
Author-director Mike Figgis informed The Hollywood Reporter’s “It Occurred in Hollywood” podcast throughout its most up-to-date episode that he and Cage didn’t get any cash for his or her work on 1995’s “Leaving Las Vegas.“
“Nicolas and I by no means received paid,” Figgis mentioned, whereas discussing the movie that received Cage an Academy Award for Greatest Actor, his solely Oscar to this point. (Take heed to Figgis’ remarks under, beginning at about 31:57.)
“They mentioned the movie by no means went into revenue,” Figgis mentioned of Lumiere Photos, which financed “Leaving” for about $4 million, based on the director.
The movie earned $32 million worldwide, based on Field Workplace Mojo.
Figgis shot the movie on handheld 16 mm cameras on the streets of Las Vegas, and mentioned in his interview that “nobody” needed to finance the anti-Hollywood image.
“Leaving Las Vegas,” which Figgis tailored from the 1990 John O’Brien novel of the identical identify, follows Ben Sanderson (Cage), a disillusioned Los Angeles screenwriter who strikes to Las Vegas to interact in extraordinarily self-destructive habits. Figgis mentioned Cage was speculated to make $100,000 for his position within the movie.
Though Figgis mentioned he and Cage made a whopping $0 for the movie, he didn’t categorical any type of resentment.
“No matter,” Figgis informed THR. “My profession then took off once more, and the subsequent movie I did, I received very well paid … And inside a 12 months [Cage] was incomes 20 million a movie, in order that was fairly good.”
“Leaving Las Vegas” was a turning level in Cage’s profession. He adopted up his Oscar-winning position in big tasks like “The Rock,” “Con Air” and “Face/Off.”
Cage quickly turned one of many highest-paid actors in Hollywood, however by 2009 he’d seemingly squandered his fortune on costly and infamously eccentric purchases — which reportedly included three castles, two islands within the Bahamas, two yachts, a Gulfstream jet, 50 vehicles, numerous shrunken heads, a pet octopus and a $276,000 dinosaur cranium that he outbid Leonardo DiCaprio to acquire. He ultimately owed the IRS about $14 million, and thousands and thousands extra to different collectors, based on a March profile in GQ.
Within the years that adopted, Cage starred in 46 films, an expertise he described to GQ as “a conveyor belt.”
Though this was a low level for the actor, his profession has taken an upswing in recent times with roles in 2018’s “Mandy” and 2021’s “Pig.” On this 12 months’s “The Insufferable Weight of Huge Expertise,” the actor poked enjoyable at his personal monetary troubles by taking part in a fictionalized model of himself who accepts a $1 million provide to attend a rich fan’s party.