Nicolas Cage is currently one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood. His work has spanned a wide variety of genres and styles, many of which have become either cult classics or more mainstream successes. Of course, some might be wondering if the 57-year-old actor could be retiring at some point. According to Nicolas Cage, however, he will never retire from acting.
Here’s what he said while speaking with EW:
“No, no, no. No, no. That can’t happen. To do what I do in cinema has been like a guardian angel for me, and I need it. I’m healthier when I’m working, I need a positive place to express my life experience, and filmmaking has given me that. So I’m never going to retire. Where are we now, 117 movies? [Laughs]”
He further elaborated just how much work he does compared to some other beloved actors.
“What’s funny is, my argument with people who go, ‘You work too much,’ was ‘I like working, and it’s healthy, I’m happy when I’m working, and by the way, guys like Cagney and Bogart, they were doing hundreds of movies.’ And then I went, ‘I’d better check that,’ and I went, ‘Oops.’ [Laughs] Jerry Lewis was one of my friends, and he and I would go and have dinner together, and he would say, ‘How many movies you got?’ I go, ‘I got about 100, how many you got?’ ‘I got 40. So you got twice as much as me?’ ‘Well, I didn’t know that, Jerry.'”
This is great news for fans that might’ve worried that Nicolas Cage could get burned out by acting and retire at some point. It seems he truly does love working and acting in movies. Although that’s pretty obvious with how many great performances he’s given us, especially in recent years. It seems like there’s always a new Nicolas Cage film on the horizon. In fact, the beloved actor is preparing to take on a really massive role in the near future – himself – with the upcoming film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. At this rate, we’ll probably see Nicolas Cage give every kind of performance in every genre you can think of.