Nicolas Cage Begged His Uncle Francis Ford Coppola To Be In The Godfather: Part III, But Things Would Have Been Super Awkward

Nicolas Cage, Andrew Garfield, Jonathan Majors, Simon Rex, and Peter Dinklage recently sat down together for an Actor’s Roundtable for THR to discuss their careers and share some interesting stories. It’s a great conversation that offers a lot of interesting insight into these actors and the kinds of people that they are.

During that discussion, the group was asked what movie that they would love to make, but don’t think anyone would let them. In answer to this question, Cage admitted that he begged his uncle, director Francis Ford Coppola to play Vincent Corleone in The Godfather Part III. Cage said:

“This is a very embarrassing answer to your question, OK, because it involves family. So Uncle [Francis Ford Coppola] was doing Godfather III, and I said, ‘I really think I ought to be in your movie, Uncle. I really think it’s a good idea if you would cast me. I think I could play this part.’ He was going to cast Andy Garcia, and I said, ‘But I just see myself more as James Caan’s son, and he’s playing Sonny’s son. He’s not playing Michael’s son. He’s Sonny’s son. I just feel a little more James Caan.’ It just wasn’t going to happen. Nope, not going to happen. So that was a movie I didn’t get let in that I really wanted to be in. There.”

That must’ve been a hard pill to swallow, but Andy Garcia was great in the role. This was not long after Cage made Moonstruck, and while it seems this would have been a great opportunity for Cage, and he would have probably done great in the role, but things would have been super awkward.

Why would have things been so awkward? Well, Vincent’s love interest in the film was the daughter of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone, and she was played by Coppola’s daughter Sophia Coppola. So, ya know, the whole being cousins thing would have been weird.

Yeah, I get that in the story they were cousins, but having real cousins playing cousins in a romantic relationship with each other… Francis Ford Coppola obviously wasn’t on board.