Actor Nicolas Cage has shared a story about his failed attempt to get cast in The Godfather: Part III. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Cage revealed that he asked his uncle, the acclaimed Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola, for a part in the 1990 mob movie–but it didn’t work out.
Cage was apparently going for the role of James Caan’s son, a part that ultimately went to Andy Garcia. Cage thought he would be a good fit, but Coppola apparently didn’t agree.
“So uncle [Francis Ford Coppola] was doing Godfather III, and I said, ‘I really think I ought to be in your movie, uncle. I really think it’s a good idea if you would cast me. I think I could play this part.’ He was going to cast Andy Garcia, and I said, ‘But I just see myself more as James Caan’s son, and he’s playing Sonny’s son. He’s not playing Michael’s son. He’s Sonny’s son,” Cage said. “I just feel a little more James Caan.’ It just wasn’t going to happen. Nope, not going to happen. So that was a movie I didn’t get let in that I really wanted to be in. There.”
Garcia went on to be nominated for an Oscar for The Godfather: Part III as Vincent Mancini.
As for Cage, he didn’t get the part, but he himself won the Best Actor Academy Away for 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas. His next movie is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he plays himself–check out the trailer here.
