There’s no denying the Nicolas Cage has led an interesting life, but a recent interview with The New York Times has proven how batshit crazy his life really is behind closed doors.
During the interview, journalist David Marchese brought up the time Cage told David Letterman his pet cobras wanted to kill him, and asked him whether he was “trying to project a certain image.”
The actor added that after he told the cobra story on Letterman “the neighbourhood wasn’t too pleased that I had cobras, so I had them re-homed in a zoo.”
During the infamous Letterman interview, Cage also talked about doing mushrooms with his cat. Yes, you read that right.
When Marchese asked him about that, he explained, “The cat – a friend of mine gave me a bag of mushrooms, and my cat would go into the refrigerator and grab it, almost like he knew what it was. He loved it. Then I started going, “I guess I’ll do it.” It was a peaceful and beautiful experience. But I subsequently threw them out.”
Cage also told Marchese that the cobras “definitely” influenced his acting. “They would try to hypnotize you by going side to side, and when I did “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” that’s something my character does before he attacks. Animals are fun places to get inspiration.”
“Actually, I thought Heath Ledger was doing some reptilian stuff as the Joker, with the tongue darting out all the time,” he added.
Later in the interview, Cage said “at this point in my life…I heavily prefer not to go out. I’d rather just stay home. I don’t think I can ever decompress ever again, even at a karaoke bar. It’s too vulnerable.”
Cage is, of course, talking about a video of himself singing Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ at a karaoke bar which was sold to tabloids earlier this year. The video emerged right after the actor filed for an annulment from Eirca Koike just four days after they tied the knot in Las Vegas.
“I’d much rather let my work and not my personal life speak for me,” Cage told Marchese. “Rob Zombie once said to me, ‘Be as normal in your own life as you can be, so you can be as messed up as you want in your art.’”
Not sure how ‘normal’ pet cobras and doing mushrooms with your cat is, but hey, whatever makes you happy, right?