Nicolas Cage on Why Christopher Nolan and Other Directors Won’t Work With Him After He Turned Down Their Films: ‘They Get Their Feelings Hurt’

Nicolas Cage is still remembering that he might have blown a big chance when he turned down a role in Christopher Nolan‘s “Insomnia.”

The Oscar-winning actor covered numerous pivotal moments in his career in an antic, wide-ranging interview with the New York Times ahead of the premiere of his “Spider-Noir” series on MGM+, and recalled that several renowned auteurs seem to have lost his number after he declined roles in their films.

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“David O. Russell offered me a movie a million years ago. It was a good movie, and he offered it and I said no, and he’s the only director that I ever said no to who actually came back and offered me another movie,” Cage told the Times. “Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don’t call you back. It’s happened a million times to me. It’s happened with Christopher Nolan, it’s happened with Woody Allen, it’s happened with Paul Thomas Anderson. They don’t call me back.”

Cage went on to say that the Nolan movie was the 2002 “Insomnia.” Russell, however, did offer him another movie — “Madden,” about NFL coach John Madden, which is slated for a November release.

“Anyway, David did call me, and it showed a lot of class that he would call me back and invite me again, and I didn’t want to say no to him again because I have great respect for his talent,” Cage said. “And it was a beautiful experience. I enjoyed working with David. I enjoyed working with Christian [Bale], John Mulaney. But it was a big challenge. I don’t think of myself when I think of John Madden. So I was like, OK, how can I get way out of my comfort zone? Which is what David Bowie said to me. I asked him, ‘How did you keep reinventing yourself?’ He said, ‘I just never got comfortable with anything I was doing.'”

“Spider-Noir,” based on the Marvel comic, premieres in the U.S. on MGM+ Monday and on Prime Video globally on Wednesday. Cage plays 1930s private investigator Ben Reilly who is also a web-slinging superhero. The series is available to watch in either black and white or color.