Nicolas Cage reveals he turned down LOTR

Says has no regrets after passing on role of Aragorn in the trilogy


Ians October 08, 2015
Cage turned down the role because of ‘different things’ that were going on in his life at the time. PHOTO: FILE

LOS ANGELES: Actor Nicolas Cage, who is usually choosy about his roles, admitted that he turned down a role in Peter Jackson’s iconic The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Left Behind actor revealed he was offered the role of Aragorn in the trilogy, but ended up turning it down.

“There were different things going on in my life at the time that precluded me from being able to travel and be away from home for three years,” Cage was quoted as saying. He didn’t mention specifically what those things were, but it seemed that the veteran actor didn’t want to leave behind his family to shoot the movies back-to-back for three years in New Zealand.

Read: Movie Review: The Frozen Ground

He was grateful that he could enjoy the movies without being distracted by himself. “But the thing about those movies is that I can watch them. I can enjoy them as an audience member,” he stated. “I don’t really watch my own movies. And so, I genuinely have the joy of watching these, especially with Lord of the Rings.”

Cage didn’t regret passing on the role, even though it could’ve been one of the biggest roles of his career. “I don’t really have any regrets. I think regret is a waste of time. I try to always move forward as opposed to dwelling on the past or the movies that could’ve happened,” he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2015.

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