Nicolas Cage Reveals Why He Turned Down Green Goblin Role in ‘Spider-Man’

Nicolas Cage is opening up about his career choices.

The 62-year-old Wild at Heart actor got candid in a conversation with Variety about his upcoming Spider-Noir for Prime Video, taking on TV, turning down the Green Goblin in the Spider-Man movie, and a status check on True Detective.

On turning down the role of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie:

“Yeah. Sam and I had a great lunch, and I did say during the lunch, ‘Listen: whoever plays Spider-Man, let them do one scene where they’re crawling around like a spider when they’re alone,’ and it didn’t happen. He wanted me to do the Green Goblin. I liked the idea of Sam Raimi, because of Evil Dead 1 and 2, and I wanted to work with him, but I had this other film called Adaptation. It happened with Jim [Carrey] and Dumb and Dumber, and I said, ‘I’m going to do this other film called Leaving Las Vegas,” and with Sam, I told him, ‘I’m going to do Adaptation.’ Both those decisions were the right ones for me, and I’m happy with those results.

On coming to television with Spider-Noir:

“I waited for something that I thought would be special, and I can tell you that with Spider-Noir, the vision that I had in my imagination manifested in the exact way that I’d hoped. And it was scary, and it was risky. I was constantly worried that I was going to get fired, because I was doing this thing of channeling old actors and colliding it with Stan Lee’s masterpiece that is Spider-Man to create this Roy Lichtenstein pop-art sensation of sorts. I didn’t know until I finally saw the eight episodes whether it was going to work.”

On whether True Detective Season 5 is happening amid rumors of his casting:

“I have no idea. I think they’re working on the material, but I haven’t heard about it in quite some time. I’m not signed on to anything; we’re just talking. I like Issa López a lot, and would be thrilled to work with her, but nothing is concrete. And I’ve never seen the first season of True Detective, but I’ve heard great things.”

On why he hasn’t worked with Quentin Tarantino:

“I have no idea. I would consider Quentin a friend of sorts. He’s someone I occasionally email with, and we talk about movies, and I liked his book about movies and enjoyed looking at the movies through his eyes. It just never happened. I think there’s a mutual admiration. I’ve always thought he was an acrobat with filmmaking. His movies move in a way that are absolutely dazzling.”

Via: Just Jared