For decades, Nicolas Cage was the one guy in Hollywood who wouldn’t give in. While everyone else jumped at the “Golden Age of Television,” the Oscar winner stayed stubborn. In his own words, he was “adamant about not doing television.” He thought the small screen was “homogenized” and built for safe, ordinary stories that didn’t fit his weird, wild energy.
Then COVID changed everything. Stuck at home during the pandemic, Cage was sitting on his couch next to his son when his son told him to do something that would break down a lifelong bias: sit down and watch ‘Breaking Bad‘.
How ‘Breaking Bad’ Changed Nicolas Cage’s Mind During COVID
What happened next was something Cage never expected. He found himself transfixed by a man staring at a suitcase. That actor was Bryan Cranston, and the scene where Walter White just stares at a piece of luggage went on for what felt like minutes.
“I began to see that the actors in that show were afforded the luxury of time to tell their story,” Cage said in a recent interview with Variety. “I saw Bryan Cranston staring at a suitcase for what seemed like minutes. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and all he was doing was staring at a suitcase, and it occurred to me that you can’t do that in movies: You don’t have the time.“
For Cage, that one shot was a huge wake-up call. Through his whole big movie career with films like ‘Leaving Las Vegas‘, ‘Face/Off‘, and ‘National Treasure‘, he was used to telling stories fast. But the slow-building tension of ‘Breaking Bad‘ gave him something new, and that is patience.
“I thought, maybe with an eight-hour narrative, I can start planting seeds for a character that can bloom into something that I don’t have the luxury of time to do in a movie,” he told the publication.
Cage’s First Lead TV Role in ‘Spider-Noir’ on Prime Video
That moment of watching TV during the pandemic led directly to the biggest change in Cage’s career in years. The result is ‘Spider-Noir’, his first lead role in a TV series, which has recently dropped on Prime Video. The show is a black-and-white noir thriller set in 1930s New York. Cage plays Ben Reilly, a private eye dealing with his past as a superhero.
In case you missed it: Biggest ‘Spider-Noir’ Twist Is That It Barely Connects To Spider-Verse
Even though he was excited about the art form, stepping onto a TV set scared the veteran actor. He had voiced the character in ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘, but Cage admitted he was really nervous about the live-action table read. He said he got so anxious he actually called Charlie Sheen for advice to calm his nerves before filming started.
‘True Detective’ Season 5 Talks and the Luxury of Time
Cage changing his mind about TV has opened the doors. After the Variety interview, rumors started flying that he might join the fifth season of HBO’s ‘True Detective’. The actor confirmed there have been talks, but he was careful to say he has not “signed on to anything” just yet.
Now the man who once saw television as a step down is calling it the ultimate upgrade for the “freak” energy he loves to explore. He says that after 45 years and more than 100 movies, the “luxury of time” is the one partner he never knew he needed.
You might also want to read: “That Was the Right Choice”: Nicolas Cage Explains Why He Rejected the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man
