Nicolas Cagedoesnt really care if you know hes related to Francis Ford Coppola.
The first appeared to be what Cage described as some early career on-set bullying.
I did a little movie calledFast Times at Ridgemont High, Cage said.
Nicolas Cage.Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival.
Directors are a pretty egocentric bunch, and theyre a very competitive group, he said.
So I changed my name predominantly because of that.
He added: Im blessed to have been born into a family of artists.
I think Nick Cage actually sounds better than Nicolas Cage.
But I went with Nicholas, he said.
Cher was referring to Francis Ford Coppolas 1986 comedy also starring Jim Carrey and Sofia Coppola.
It was pretty clever, he said.
Now Im thinking about television, he told the audience in Jeddah.
I never get time to stare at a suitcase for an hour.
I said lets do some TV.
Tim was hot offMars Attacks!,and it was a brilliant movie.
We got really close, but the studio called and shut the whole thing down, he said.
I think they were afraid about how much it would cost and they would get their money back.
Im just saying that my selection process is gonna be very severe, he said.
And, look, I have a 15-month-old daughter at home.
I wanna be home for her.
So television makes sense on a family level, too.
The Red Sea Film Festival runs until Dec 9.
