Nicolas Cage Wants to Star in a Musical, Suggests Playing Pontius Pilate in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’

Over the years, Nicolas Cage has been in a wide variety of movies, including romantic comedies like “Moonstruck,” devastating dramas like “Pig,” action flicks like “Face/Off,” and bizarre misfires like “The Wicker Man.” The prolific actor has even played himself, in this year’s meta comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.” For his next big challenge, the star is hoping for a chance to break out into song onscreen.

“I haven’t done a musical yet,” Cage said in a cover story interview for Empire Magazine’s 50 Greatest Actors issue. “I’d like to try that.”

In the interview, Cage admitted he isn’t a great singer, but still said he wanted to try it out, and chose the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice as a specific musical he could see himself starring in.

“I’m not much of a singer. I did sing okay in ‘Wild At Heart,’ I thought, but I’ve since blown my voice out singing ‘Purple Rain’ incorrectly in karaoke bars,” Cage said. “I think I’d make a good Pontius Pilate in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’”

Cage also spoke to Empire about his process in past films, explaining that he often took inspiration from famous paintings like “The Scream” to inform his physicality in movies like “Wild at Heart” or the superhero film “Ghost Rider.”

“When I did ‘Ghost Rider,’ I was thinking about Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream,’” he said. “In ‘Wild At Heart,’ I was trying to approximate what it felt like to see Warhol’s marvelous collages of Elvis Presley as a cowboy with a six-shooter. I wanted to see if you could do that with film performance. Plus, I think if David Lynch could cast anyone in any of his movies he would have wanted to have cast Elvis, so I think he was excited to roll with it when I suggested it.”

While Cage still doesn’t have a musical on the horizon, he is set to star in “The Old Way,” a Western directed by Brett Donowho and set to be released by Saban Films on January 6. The actor will also be portraying Dracula in the horror comedy “Renfield,” which costars Nicholas Hoult and Awkwafina and releases April 14.