Nicolas Cage Reveals Why He Turned Down The Matrix & The Lord of the Rings

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Nicolas Cage Reveals Why He Turned Down The Matrix & The Lord of the Rings

It’s a well-documented piece of movie trivia that, prior to being given to Keanu Reeves, the role of Neo in the hit film series The Matrix was offered to none other than actor Nicolas Cage.

In a recent interview with Yahoo, the actor discussed why he turned down the part.

“First and foremost … there’s no version of Nic Cage in reality that doesn’t want to spend time with his children,” Cage said as he discussed his role in the upcoming The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which sees Cage playing a fictionalized version of himself that is looking for his next breakout role, much to the chagrin of his daughter.

“There’s no version of Nic Cage that didn’t put family first over career. I turned down Lord of the Rings and I turned down Matrix because I didn’t want to go to New Zealand for three years or Australia for three years because I needed to be home with my son Weston, that’s a fact. So there is a huge disparity between that Nick Cage in Massive Talent and the Nic Cage sitting in front of you right now.”

At the time, filming of The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings was taking place somewhere between 1998-2000, with The Lord of the Rings infamously shooting all three films back-to-back-to-back. For Cage, that would’ve likely meant being away from his then eight-year-old son for some time, which is something that the actor did not want to commit to.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is directed by Tom Gormican from a screenplay he co-wrote with Kevin Etten. The action-comedy pic stars Cage, Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris, and Ike Barinholtz. It is produced by Cage, Mike Nilon, Kristin Burr, and Kevin Turen, with Samson Mucke, and Kevin Etten serving as executive producers.