This actor, a member of one of Hollywood’s most renowned dynasties, is considered a National Treasure, yet his personal life feels like a “quiet, horrible nightmare.”
The “Family Man” star, who once purchased a plane seat for his child’s imaginary friend, is currently enduring a “hostile environment” established by his son’s ex-wife, which is keeping him from seeing his four-year-old twin granddaughters.
When this actor was just 15, he sat in a car with his uncle, a prominent Hollywood filmmaker, and pleaded for a chance to star in one of his award-winning movies.
“Give me a screen test; I’ll show you my acting skills. There was just silence in the car,” recalled the star, who is known for his unique quirks both on and off the screen.
At 17, he forged his own path to fame by landing a minor role in the 1982 classic “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, a beloved coming-of-age film.
“I was the butt of jokes because my last name was still Coppola,” said Nicolas Cage, born Nicholas Kim Coppola in 1962.
“People would not stop saying things like, ‘I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning,’ because of Apocalypse Now…and it made it hard to work and I said, ‘I don’t need this,’ and changed it to Cage,” the star explains, referring to his decision to drop the surname that tied him to his renowned relative, Francis Ford Coppola.
He goes on to clarify his choice of the name Cage: “It’s a combination of Luke Cage from Marvel comics, who was a character I liked, also named Power Man, and John Cage, the avant-garde composer. Speaks volumes about everything I’ve been up to ever since.”
His first leading role with Cage as his last name was in the 1983 film Valley Girl, where he felt a sense of anonymity that made him feel as if a “weight had been lifted off my body.”
“Wow, I really can do this. And I felt liberated by that experience,” he shared with the Hollywood Reporter. “And you can see it in Valley Girl that I’m free. Whereas in Fast Times, or even Rumble Fish, I’m somewhat stuck,” he adds, referencing his role in the 1983 film Rumble Fish, directed by his uncle.
In the following years, Cage starred in a series of films, earning a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors.
In 1988, he received Golden Globe nominations for “Moonstruck”, alongside Cher, and “Honeymoon in Vegas”, with Sarah Jessica Parker.
That same year, he met actress Christina Fulton, who gave birth to his first son, Weston Coppola Cage, in December 1990. Weston later portrayed a younger version of his father in the 2014 film “Rage”.
Cage, who won an Oscar for his role in “Leaving Las Vegas” in 1995, also has a son named Kal-El (Superman’s birth name), born in 2005 with his third wife, Alice Kim, and a daughter, August Francesca, born in 2022 with his fifth wife, Riko Shibata.
He was previously married to Patricia Arquette from 1995 to 2001 and to Lisa Marie Presley in 2002, though he filed for divorce just months later.
In a conversation with “People”, the star of “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” emphasized that family comes “first and foremost.”
Nicolas Cage hits the carpet at #GQMOTY 2021 pic.twitter.com/QukOMppjz9
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) November 19, 2021
“There’s no version of Nick Cage in reality that doesn’t want to spend time with his children…There’s no version of Nick Cage that didn’t put family first over career,” states the Raising Arizona star.
He continues, “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.”
Supporting this, actress Minnie Driver once shared, “Was once on a plane with [Nicholas Cage] and his son and a seat had also been purchased for his son’s imaginary friend.”
To this day, the “Adaptation” star maintains a strong bond with his children and two of his grandchildren, Lucian (born 2014) and Sorin (born 2016), whom Weston shares with his second wife.
“He can do things I dream about doing…compose music, sing, act, sculpt and cook and now he is a loving father,” Cage spoke about Weston, who previously led two heavy metal bands “To see my son with my grandson is as close to a sense of blissful completion I ever had.”
Weston, 33, has been married three times and also has twin daughters, Cyress and Venice, born in 2020 with his third ex-wife, Hila Arounian.
However, the children do not know any members of their famous Hollywood family.
After a contentious divorce in 2021, TMZ reports that Hila was awarded “sole legal and physical custody of their twin daughters, leaving Weston without visitation rights.”
Describing the troubling situation, Weston’s mother, Christina, told the “U.S. Sun” that Hila has fostered a “hostile environment,” which includes “a request for a restraining order against her seeing the kids that was dismissed” in 2023.
“As a classy, respectful Hollywood family we are appalled and shocked at how Hila could do something like this. It is devastating not to see these kids. Nicolas and I haven’t been able to meet our two beautiful little granddaughters at all since they were born,” Christina said, referring to the “smear campaign” Hila has waged against their family. “We’re in a quiet, horrible nightmare. It’s insane, painful, hurtful, devastating. I have a beautiful relationship with my two little boy grandchildren and my son has a beautiful relationship with his boys.”
Christina further expressed, “Not meeting the girls is painful, hurtful, and shocking.”
In response, Hila posted a note on Facebook, stating that her ex cheated on her multiple times and was “weaponizing influence and wealth,” using “the legal system against” her.
Hila also labels Christina a “sabotaging mother” and, in reference to Weston’s mental health struggles and addictions, claims that Cage is an “enabling father” who “consistently hindered his progress.”
She does not address the issue of denying the family visitation with the twins, instead stating that Weston’s “behavior became a physical threat to our daughters and me, as well as our emotional well-being.”
Christina asserts that the Cage/Coppola family is not backing down: “In these trying times, our family’s resilience is tested. But we remain committed to overcoming these challenges and restoring our family’s harmony.”