According to the director of Leaving Las Vegas, neither he nor Nicolas Cage were paid the money promised to them for the movie, even when it went on to win Cage his only Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was released in 1995 and took just under $50 million from a $4 million budget, but it seems that Lumiere Pictures denied that the film had managed to turn a profit and did not pay out the $100,000 they should have been paid.
Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis recently appeared on the It Happened In Hollywood podcast, and he spoke about his multiple award-winning movie, but in particular touched on the almost unbelievable revelation that he and Cage were both promised a $100,000 payment for the movie but never saw a cent thanks to the studio claiming that the film didn’t make enough profit. Figgis said:
"[Lumiere Pictures] said the film never went into profit. Whatever. I mean, my career then took off again, and the next film I did, I got really well paid. And within a year [Nic] was earning $20 million a film, so that was quite good."
To imagine any actor not getting paid for a highly praised role is pretty incredulous, especially for a movie that on the surface seemed to make a healthy return on its miniscule budget. When you consider that actor to be Nicolas Cage, who in 1995 wasn’t doing badly for himself, it becomes even more of a strange anomaly that could only happen in once upon a time in Hollywood.
Nicolas Cage Has Recently Seen A Huge Resurgence
While there have been times when Nicolas Cage has been a love him or hate him type of actor, there is no denying that his career has included quite a few highs when it comes to box office success including the likes of Con Air, Face/Off and National Treasure. Although he spent a number of years with a number of direct to video releases, and some less than brilliantly received roles, in the last few years there has been a definite resurgence of interest in Cage.
Last year, Cage’s role in Pig was critically acclaimed and kick-started a lot of new interest in the actor, who followed up the movie with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent this year, in which he appeared with Pedro Pascal as a fictionalized version of himself. As one of the highest-rated movies of Cage’s career, with solid 86% and 87% scores from critics and audiences respectively, the film saw Cage’s rejuvenation take a massive leap.
His next project is another curveball role, which will see Cage playing Dracula in the Universal horror comedy Renfield, which follows their Invisible Man remake and reimagines Count Dracula’s insane henchman in a modern setting. With Cage having been seen on set in full Drac garb, and the actor having previously reeled off a list of classic influences that he has worked into his performance, Renfield is another intriguing addition to the Cage canon.