I am, generally speaking, not a fan of celebrities interviewing each other. Zendaya isn’t going to ask Tom Cruise hard-hitting questions about his personal life; they’re going to chat about process, and craft services, and vacationing in Italy, and other famous people stuff. It’s usually boring. I will, however, make an exception for Marilyn Manson interviewing Nicolas Cage. They’re fascinating oddballs who, if given the chance, will discuss talking crows, snakeskin jackets, mummy’s hands, and Werner Herzog.
Do yourself a favor and read Manson’s conversation with Cage in Interview magazine (the headline begins “C*ck!”), if only for the section where the National Treasure star discusses the last time he gambled. “The last time I gambled was about 30 years ago. I was in the Bahamas, and I walked into a casino and felt like I had my mojo with me, like nothing could go wrong,” he said. Cage wasn’t wrong: within 20 minutes of playing roulette, he turned $200 into $20,000, so he “went and found an orphanage in the Bahamas, met all the kids and the headmistress, and said, ‘This is for you.’ I put the 20 grand in her hand, walked away, and never gambled again, because if I did, it would ruin the power of that moment.”
Did this actually happen? Did Nicolas Cage donate $20,000 to an orphanage in the Bahamas, where he would later buy a private island? Put it this way. My man once said, “What is an octopus, $80? You’re not going to go into dire straits buying an octopus. The dinosaur skull was an unfortunate thing, because I did spend $276,000 on that.”
There is no Nic Cage story I won’t believe.
(Via Interview)