Nicolas Cage is undeniably one of the most distinct acting voices of this generation, with his over-the-top style often making his roles stand out among the crowd. But there are plenty of roles that Cage narrowly missed out on, which are now impossible to imagine anybody else playing - and Ranker has put together a helpful list of all these iconic roles.
Plenty of these almost-roles are due to scheduling conflicts or prior commitments, which shows just how strongly certain directors and screenwriters valued Cage's presence and wanted it in their movies. He's a one-of-a-kind actor, and each of these characters would have been totally different if he'd ended up with the role.
The character of Joel Barish in Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine is now widely regarded as one of Jim Carrey's most impressive performances to date. The character was unlike anything Carrey had played before, and gave him a great chance to prove that he's just as good of a dramatic actor as a comedic one.
This blurred boundary between comedy and drama is a quality that's also shared by Nic Cage, so it makes sense that he was also considered for the role. However, Charlie Kaufman's words had also recently been brought to life by Cage in one of his best movies, Adaptation.
The story surrounding Constantine's casting is actually a very complex and unfortunate one - although Cage was pretty much agreed to play the role by director Tarsem Singh, Warner Brothers clashed with this decision and the two even ended up suing each other over the conflict.
The role eventually went to Keanu Reeves, who definitely had the right levels of charisma and charm to pull off this complex role. Singh was also replaced by director Francis Lawrence, so the finished project was much different than the original vision.
It's hard to imagine anybody other than Judd Nelson playing the role of Bender in John Hughes' The Breakfast Club, but Cage's performance in Fast Times At Ridgemont High had also put him in high demand for the job. He seemed like a sure fit, and Hughes himself was also convinced that he'd make a great choice.
Cage was eventually rejected for the role, and many speculate that it's because Cage was too recognizable and expensive for Hughes' fairly small budget. Nelson was a perfect fit for the role, and his character has become one of the most iconic and memorable of all time.
At the time before Dumb and Dumber's release, Jim Carrey and Nic Cage had already expressed interest in working together multiple times, so Carrey pushed for his friend to join him on this project. He was eventually forced to reject, starring in Leaving Las Vegas instead - where he embodied one of Cage's best characters to date, even winning an Oscar for his performance.
The role obviously went to Jeff Daniels in the end, who made a perfect comedic partner to Jim Carrey despite the actor's wishes to work with Cage. The pair developed a strong bond and hilarious on-screen chemistry that made both films endlessly entertaining and fun to watch.
Although the role eventually went to Mickey Rourke, it was originally Nic Cage that was signed on to play Randy Robinson in Darren Aronofsky's acclaimed drama. He was forced to back out of the project, however, when he realized that he could not meet the high demands of the job.
Rourke was clearly the right choice in the end, as he won a Golden Globe and was even Oscar-nominated for his performance. It's widely regarded as the reason for his career comeback in the late 2000s, and seen by many as one of the best performances of that decade.
The creative minds behind Crank, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, once revealed that the character of Chev Chelios was originally written with Cage in mind, though it's not clear whether or not he was ever in talks to star. The part eventually went to Jason Statham, who completely made the most of the eccentric character.
It's not too hard to imagine Cage in the role, however, since it's not that different from some of the characters that he's played in the past. But whether or not he would have exhibited the same brute force and raw attitude as Statham is still a mystery.
Although the temporarily titled Batman: Triumphant was never actually made due to the previous films' poor critical reception, Joel Schumacher's hypothetical sequel was supposed to star Nic Cage as one of the main antagonists, Scarecrow.
Schumacher's previous film Batman & Robin is widely regarded as one of those childhood movies that are almost universally hated now, so it's no surprise that Warner Bros was unwilling to put this third film into action. Cage thus missed out on the role, which eventually went to Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.
Although The Matrix would eventually become one of the most successful and iconic action franchises of all time, Nic Cage was allegedly unwilling to fly to Australia in order to film the role. As such, it was eventually offered to Keanu Reeves, who stayed on for all four films.
The Matrix has become such a cornerstone of pop culture that it's impossible to imagine anybody else in the main roles, partiuclarly Reeves as Neo. However, if there's anybody that has the same sort of restrained charm and quiet force as Keanu Reeves, it's probably Nic Cage.
Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of Aragorn was undeniably one of the highlights of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the search for the right actor was much more complicated than you'd expect. Cage was initially offered the role, but was forced to reject because it was too much of a time commitment.
The role then went to Stuart Townsend, who was flown out to New Zealand and even spent two months preparing for the films before he was fired and replaced by Mortensen. Townsend was allegedly unwilling to undergo the training necessary to play Aragorn, and it was Mortensen's commitment that made him such a fitting choice.
Once again, Superman Lives is a film that never actually saw the light of day, but it was intended to be Tim Burton's directorial adaptation of the iconic character with Nic Cage in talks to star. Although not an entirely conventional choice for the role, it seems like Cage was pretty much guaranteed the part before Burton backed off the project.
The role eventually went to Brandon Routh in 2006's Superman Returns, though he only stuck around for one movie. Since then, Superman has been played by Henry Cavill, whom Zack Snyder introduced to the DCEU in his iconic Man of Steel.
