Nicolas Cage walked so Will Smith could run.
The 59-year-old Hollywood actor has finally revealed the rationale he would often be slapped by fans each time he was at an airport.
Cage, whose real name is Nicolas Coppola, said the bizarre trend was inspired by his 1987 film “Moonstruck,” during which he starred opposite singer Cher.
Within the film, Cher slaps Cage’s character.
“For the longest time, back from ‘Moonstruck,’ I’d walk to the airport and other people just had a habit of claiming: ‘Snap out of it!’ from Moonstruck – the Cher ‘Snap out of it’ [line] – and I did get slapped a number of times,” he told Entertainment Tonight.
“Oh yeah, I did! And that, you understand, it’s a part of the job,” he added.
When asked why fans felt the necessity to raise a hand against the Oscar winner, Cage suspected it was because fans believed there might have been something in it for them.
“I believe possibly [they think] I’ll solid them in something. Who knows?” he quipped.
Cage previously revealed that he almost turned down the role — but ultimately agreed to it after making a deal along with his agent.
“I made that movie on a cope with my then-agent Ed Limato. I used to be desperately attempting to get him to say yes to me doing ‘Vampire’s Kiss,’” he told USA Today in 2021.
“He said, ‘No, you’re not going to wear those silly plastic things. I would like you to look handsome! Do “Moonstruck!”‘ And I said, ‘I don’t wish to do Moonstruck!’ I desired to be punk rock – I didn’t wish to do a schmaltzy movie about opera,” he explained.
“But I said, ‘If I do “Moonstruck,” will you let me do “Vampire’s Kiss?”‘ And he said ‘OK.’”
“The reality is, I like ‘Moonstruck.’ Now that I’m older, I see the worth in [it]. I haven’t seen ‘Moonstruck’ in one million years, but I believe it’s powerfully romantic and I like all of the performances,” Cage added.
Last yr, it was revealed that Cage didn’t actually receives a commission for starring within the 1995 film “Leaving Las Vegas” — a project that earned him an Academy Award.
The film’s director Mike Figgis revealed that he, in addition to Cage, didn’t see a lot as a cent hit their bank accounts after the film.
“Nicolas and I never got paid,” Figgis said on The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood podcast in October 2022.
Figgis claims he was due $100,000 for his directing fee, which he never received.
“They said the film never went into profit,” he said of the now-defunct Lumiere Pictures, which financed the $4 million film.
“Whatever,” he said. “I mean, my profession then took off again, and the following film I did, I got rather well paid. And inside a yr (Nic) was earning $20 million a movie, in order that was quite good.”
