Nicolas Cage - Clint Eastwood - Split - 2025

(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Stills)

Nicolas Cage has made so many movies in his career that it could be argued he has more criminally overlooked gems than any other Hollywood actor. The man has starred in some bona fide classics, several massive box office hits, and a veritable smorgasbord of truly dismal films that didn’t work at all. Somewhere in the middle is his collection of genuinely great movies that didn’t find an audience at the time or were unfairly dismissed by critics and have since gained much stronger reputations. He is a massive fan of one of these films, too, primarily because he truly connected to the unique character he played.

In the early 2000s, Cage was still a decade away from tumbling into direct-to-video hell. After a couple of misfires in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Windtalkers, he came roaring back with Adaptation, receiving his second ‘Best Actor’ Oscar nomination for his incredible performance as oddball twins Charlie and Donald Kaufman. Once again, Cage was at the height of his powers, and he had a choice of two legendary directors to work with on his next project: Ridley Scott or Clint Eastwood.

At the time, Scott was experiencing a career resurgence thanks to the all-conquering success of Gladiator in 2000, which he followed up with Hannibal and Black Hawk Down in 2001. All three of these films were massive moneymakers, and two of them saw Scott receive his best reviews in a decade. By contrast, Eastwood was going through a much stickier directorial patch, with neither 2000’s Space Cowboys nor 2002’s Blood Work being much to write home about.

Perhaps this contrast in fortune was in the back of Cage’s mind when he chose between Matchstick Men and Mystic River, or maybe he just believed in Scott’s black comedy crime caper more than Eastwood’s mystery drama based on a Dennis Lehane novel. However, when he spoke with The Ringer in 2025, Cage hinted that the character of conman Roy Waller may have swung the balance toward Scott’s film, as he was more intrigued by him than Tim Robbins’ tragic kidnapping suspect in Eastwood’s adaptation.

“I really cared about that character, and I cared about his afflictions,” Cage said. “I had a personal relationship with it, and that was the story I wanted to tell.”

Naturally, Cage threw himself into playing Waller, who suffered from OCD and Tourette’s syndrome, with customary commitment. It resulted in one of his best performances, somehow over the top and entertaining, yet sensitive and complex at the same time. Critics loved his work in the movie, and there was even Oscar buzz at one point.

Sadly, the film didn’t quite sustain this traction, and though it made its money back at the box office, it didn’t last long in the cultural consciousness. Over the years, it had to make do as a cult classic that a dedicated fanbase would constantly champion, which isn’t the worst fate for a film. However, Cage always felt it deserved better, musing, “I think that movie was great. That movie, to me, is one of [Scott’s] best movies, and I would like to have that movie be more revered.”

As a final irony, when it came time for the Oscars, the role that Cage chose wasn’t nominated, while Robbins walked away with ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for the part he turned down. But hey, them’s the breaks.

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