Variety<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m Nick Cage in life, and I\u2019m Nick Cage on camera.<\/p>\nNicolas Cage said he legally changed his name to avoid being the \u201cclown cousin\u201d of the famous Coppola family. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Tis better to be the patriarch of my own little family than the clown cousin on the margins of someone else\u2019s, so I decided I\u2019m going to bring it on and be \u2018Cage.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Cage, 62, has used the name professionally for decades, but said distancing himself from the famous Italian-American Coppola family started early in his career.<\/p>\n
The actor is the son of academic and author August Coppola and the nephew of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire. His cousins include filmmaker Sofia Coppola and actor Jason Schwartzman.<\/p>\n
Between them, the Coppola family has collected eight Oscars, 10 Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards, a Grammy and two Palme d\u2019Or honors from the Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>\n
The actor said he chose \u201cCage\u201d partly because of the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage, while also drawing inspiration from avant-garde composer John Cage.<\/p>\n
Cage with his dad August Coppola and mom Joy Vogelsang at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, July 31, 1998. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Cage\u2019 is a name that I liked coming across in the comics \u2014 I just thought he had a cool name \u2014 and I grew up in a very avant-garde, artsy family and there was talk about John Cage and the experimental compositions that he did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also admitted he wanted a name that felt \u201cshort and sweet\u201d like James Dean.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, well, I\u2019ll keep the name \u2018Nicolas\u2019 because my father named me Nicolas \u2014 with French spelling, which has always frustrated me, because everyone adds an \u2018h,\u2019\u201d Cage said.<\/p>\n
Cage, Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola and Eleanor Coppola at a Universal Studios party, January 25, 2004. WireImage<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why he gave me the French spelling! But he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for whether he prefers \u201cNick\u201d or \u201cNicolas,\u201d the actor added: \u201cI\u2019m both! I think people know me as both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cage has been credited as Nicolas Cage throughout nearly his entire career, aside from a 1981 TV pilot and the 1982 film \u201cFast Times at Ridgemont High.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the same interview, Cage also reflected on two major projects he passed on<\/a> over the years.<\/p>\nThe actor revealed he nearly played the Green Goblin in 2002\u2019s \u201cSpider-Man\u201d before the role ultimately went to Willem Dafoe due to creative differences.<\/p>\n
He also said he almost starred in the 1994 comedy \u201cDumb and Dumber\u201d alongside Jim Carrey instead of Jeff Daniels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolas Cage has a new legal name \u2014 Nicolas Cage. The Oscar winner, born Nicolas Kim Coppola, revealed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[12374,49,48,361,362,75,9557,255358,29973,76390],"class_list":["post-701630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-actors","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-francis-ford-coppola","tag-jason-schwartzman","tag-nicolas-cage","tag-sofia-coppola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}