Nicolas Cage Reveals the Heartwarming Reason He Turned Down Starring in THE MATRIX and THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Nicolas Cage is the actor fresh on everyone’s minds right now, as his latest film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, is getting fantastic reviews, including 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans are loving the idea of Cage playing a character based on himself, entering into a situation where he is getting paid to attend the party of his number one fan, who just happens to be a billionaire cartel leader (played by Pedro Pascal).

But the one part of this version of Cage in the film that the real actor takes issue with is the fact that the film version is kind of an absent father. In a recent interview with People, Cage explained that in his sprawling career, he has turned down some huge roles for the sake of his family.

"First and foremost ... there's no version of Nic Cage in reality that doesn't want to spend time with his children," he says. "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."

Cage was up for the roles of Neo in The Matrix and Aragorn in LOTR. Those are two huge roles that ended up majorly boosting the careers of the actors that took them on, so it was definitely a sacrifice on Cage’s part. Cage's son Weston is now 31. The actor is also dad to son Kal-El, 16 — plus he and wife Riko Shibata are expecting a baby later this year. I think it’s cool that Cage wanted to set the record straight. He’s a good dad, and he’s willing to poke fun at any other aspect of his life, as long as people know what’s most important to him. Cage went on in the interview, to say:

"I always say to myself, 'I never had a career, only work.' What I mean by that is sometimes — and I won't mention names — but when you get into this career-minded perception of one's self it can be a slippery slope, and it can lead to things where you start believing in your own mythos and you start taking yourself way too seriously. You become pretentious and then you fall into the realm of diva, and that's when mistakes happen in your personal life and on camera."

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which stars Cage, Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris, Ike Barinholtz and Sharon Horgan, hits theaters this Friday.