Nicolas Cage suspected that James Franco stole his Spring Breakers character from him, according to Seth Rogen.
Franco played the role of cornrowed drug dealer and rapper Alien in the 2012 film, a concept which Cage apparently believes he himself pitched for Rogen’s The Green Hornet.
Speaking in a new interview for GQ, Rogen revealed that he and collaborator Evan Goldberg spoke to Cage about playing the Russian crime boss villain in the 2011 superhero film, though the actor wanted to play it as as a bald man, with tattooed hair, large prosthetic lips and a voice like Edward G Robinson.
However, Cage later wanted to play it as a “white Bahamian” with a thick Caribbean accent, and proceeded to act out a scene dumping pigs’ blood on Rogen’s character in a “creepy voodoo ritual”.
While he didn’t get the part, Rogen says he had a meeting with Cage recently where the Oscar-winner asked whether he had discussed the idea with Franco, suspecting that the latter had stolen the idea for Spring Breakers.
“The second part actually just happened before the pandemic,” Rogen added. “I mean, he already doesn’t like me, is the point. So he’ll continue not to like me!”
Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Cage was instrumental in ensuring his new film Willy’s Wonderland was full of more reptiles.
“Nic is into reptiles, he is into amphibians, and he’s into dinosaurs. He was the one who was like, ‘Hey, make this thing an alligator, make this thing a chameleon. Let’s get a turtle instead of a regular mammal,'” said screenwriter G.O. Parsons.
NME has reached out to Cage’s representatives for comment on Rogen’s claims.
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