14 Things We Learned About Nicolas Cage That Made Us Freak Out

In recounting what he called a "horrifying" experience, Cage told reporters in 2011: 

It was two in the morning. I was living in Orange County at the time and was asleep with my wife. My two-year old at the time was in another room. I opened my eyes and there was a naked man wearing my leather jacket eating a Fudgesicle in front of my bed.

Cage talked to the man, asked him to leave, and the police arrived soon after. While Cage did not press charges, he said he never stayed in the house again. 

When Nicolas Cage (playing Peter Loew) eats a cockroach in the 1988 movie Vampire's Kiss, it's cringe-worthy and, by Cage's own admission, something he did to try to "get on the map." As a calculated on-screen move, eating the cockroach was his idea - and something the director made him do more than once.

According to director Robert Bierman, the script originally called for the character to eat a raw egg. Cage and Bierman decided an egg wasn't extreme enough, so Cage told Bierman, "The thing I hate most in the world are cockroaches. They are my Room 101... So let me eat a cockroach." As Bierman explained, 

He wanted to eat the most frightening thing for him. I thought, "This is terrific!" I sent my prop people down into the boiler room.... They brought me a box, divided up into little sections with tissue paper. The cockroaches were there lined up for me to cast. I think they’re actually called water bugs - they’re bigger than cockroaches.

Cage called it one of the "most disgusting horrible" memories of anything he's done on the set of a movie.  

From cobras to cats, Nicholas Cage finds inspiration in animals. Allegedly, it was a feline friend who helped him get high on one occasion.

Cage explained that, when a friend gave him a bag of mushrooms, his "cat would go in my refrigerator and grab it, almost like he knew what it was. He loved it." Cage thought his cat might be on to something, did the mushrooms - which brought on a "peaceful and beautiful experience" - and then got rid of the psychedelics. 

The cobras, on the other hand, were rehomed to a zoo. They, according to Cage, "try to hypnotize me by showing me their backs, and they'd lunge at me." His neighbors, also unhappy, were part of the impetus to find a new home for the snakes. 

Among the many possessions Cage has accrued through is life - including an octopus and shrunken pygmy heads - are his houses located around the world.  Many of his houses were foreclosed on in the wake of debt, including the "Most Haunted House in America." 

Cage bought the LaLourie House in New Orleans in 2007. He claimed it was for inspiration to write a book, which he never produced, and the house was sold two years later.

While he never owned Dracula's castle in Romania, he did stay there to get inspiration when filming  the first Ghost Rider (2007) movie. Co-star Idris Elba recalled seeing a tired-looking Cage and asking if he was okay. Cage replied,

Yeah man, I went up to Dracula's castle... the ruins up in the mountains, and I stayed the night.... I just had to channel the energy, and it was pretty spooky up there.

Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp were friends and, during a casual game of Monopoly, Cage told Depp he should try acting. Cage told The New York Times in 2019 that Depp was initially dismissive of the suggestion, insisting he couldn't act and that he was a musician.

Cage persisted, and had Depp meet with his agent. Depp was cast in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) soon after. 

Nicolas Cage once owned the Holy Grail of comic books: Action Comics No. 1. Released in 1938, it featured the first appearance of Superman and was purchased by the actor in 1997. 

In 2000, the comic book was stolen from Cage, alongside others, only to be discovered in a storage locker in 2011. When it was found, Cage deemed it "divine providence," and hoped "the heirloom will be returned to my family."

Soon after getting the comic book back, however, Cage sold it at auction. The book garnered nearly $2.2 million - the highest price ever paid for a comic book (at the time) - money he may have applied to his massive tax debt.

In 2012, it was reported Cage owed $14 million to the IRS.