4 ms·

I think of Conan, and Coming to America. I was told by an industry insider (taken at face value), that he almost never turned down a part, which drove his agen

I think of Conan, and Coming to America. I was told by an industry insider (taken at face value), that he almost never turned down a part, which drove his agent nuts. That's why he was in these kind of oddball movies. I suspect that Nicholas Cage is similar.

jdougan 2y ago
Michael Caine apparently is similar. I see no other reason why he would have done the (wonderful) movie "Water".
- wbl 2y ago
  Don't forget Noises Off. Truly delightful farce, and his acting plus the physical comedy of the rest of the cast makes it happen.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  There’s his infamous quote about being in Jaws 3: I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.
  - aidenn0 2y ago
    He was in Jaws: The Revenge which is the 4th Jaws movie.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
      Thanks for the correction!
mathgeek 2y ago
> I suspect that Nicholas Cage is similar. Probably, although it’s also well documented that Cage took a lot of roles to pay off his extensive debts after blowing through nine digits of his wealth.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- hinkley 2y ago
  Turns out real estate is what did him. And he refused to file for bankruptcy. Given his behavior there for a while I was trying to do the math on how you blow through $65 million worth of... well, blow.
hinkley 2y ago
Ah, the 'working actor'. Gary Oldman (who also calls himself a working actor) kinda tanked his career for a while by getting typecast as a villain. Playing Sirius Black was basically autobiographical, and kind of got him unstuck.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  Gary Oldman is one of the best actors I've had the privilege of seeing. Consider that Mr. Zorg, Winston Churchill, and George Smiley, are played by the same person, is amazing.
  - glandium 2y ago
    as well as James Gordon, Norman Stansfield and Harry Truman.
    - hinkley 2y ago
      We forgot about Dracula.
  - wyldfire 2y ago
    Jackson Lamb is the Mr. Hyde to Smiley's Dr. Jekyll. It's just fantastic to see Oldman in both roles. Lamb is just a riot.
  - hinkley 2y ago
    Rosencrantz and Stansfield made him my favorite actor for the first decade of my adulthood. Zorg is okay. That terrible Lost in Space movie lowered his trajectory for a while. He’s been hitting home runs a lot since. But if you hear him in interviews he thinks of himself as a working actor. He’s doing the job. But the right people think he can do a good job so he’s getting better roles.
    - alexjplant 2y ago
      > That terrible Lost in Space movie I'll never defend "Lost in Space" as a cinematic tour-de-force in the traditional sense but I'll be damned if it isn't one of the most quintessentially-90s films ever made. It has Silicon Graphics logos and bubble-shaped silver electronics everywhere. William Hurt managed to find time to slip away from the "Dark City" set to make an appearance. Pre-Felicity Shagwell/post-Rollergirl Heather Graham fends off advances from Joey Tribbiani while the crazy guy from "Leon: The Professional" makes a bunch of bizarre wisecracking non-sequiturs. A brash Big beat remix of the original TV theme blares over the credits immediately following a fight involving a giant CGI (SGI?) spider. I disliked it intensely as a kid but enjoy it a lot in retrospect because of my high-resolution nostalgia goggles.
wlesieutre 2y ago
How about Coming to America combined with Star Wars? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXze55Z2GuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXze55Z2GuY
cdchn 2y ago
The "Riddle of Steel" scene is just phenomenal.
nonameiguess 2y ago
My wife's cousin worked the case where they forced Nic Cage to give back the dinosaur skull he bought for a quarter mil at an illegal auction to the Mongolian government. He had to take every role ever offered to him because he made some amazingly stupid financial decisions.

jdougan 2y ago

Michael Caine apparently is similar. I see no other reason why he would have done the (wonderful) movie "Water".

wbl 2y ago
Don't forget Noises Off. Truly delightful farce, and his acting plus the physical comedy of the rest of the cast makes it happen.
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
There’s his infamous quote about being in Jaws 3: I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.
- aidenn0 2y ago
  He was in Jaws: The Revenge which is the 4th Jaws movie.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
    Thanks for the correction!

mathgeek 2y ago

> I suspect that Nicholas Cage is similar. Probably, although it’s also well documented that Cage took a lot of roles to pay off his extensive debts after blowing through nine digits of his wealth.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
hinkley 2y ago
Turns out real estate is what did him. And he refused to file for bankruptcy. Given his behavior there for a while I was trying to do the math on how you blow through $65 million worth of... well, blow.

hinkley 2y ago

Ah, the 'working actor'. Gary Oldman (who also calls himself a working actor) kinda tanked his career for a while by getting typecast as a villain. Playing Sirius Black was basically autobiographical, and kind of got him unstuck.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
Gary Oldman is one of the best actors I've had the privilege of seeing. Consider that Mr. Zorg, Winston Churchill, and George Smiley, are played by the same person, is amazing.
- glandium 2y ago
  as well as James Gordon, Norman Stansfield and Harry Truman.
  - hinkley 2y ago
    We forgot about Dracula.
- wyldfire 2y ago
  Jackson Lamb is the Mr. Hyde to Smiley's Dr. Jekyll. It's just fantastic to see Oldman in both roles. Lamb is just a riot.
- hinkley 2y ago
  Rosencrantz and Stansfield made him my favorite actor for the first decade of my adulthood. Zorg is okay. That terrible Lost in Space movie lowered his trajectory for a while. He’s been hitting home runs a lot since. But if you hear him in interviews he thinks of himself as a working actor. He’s doing the job. But the right people think he can do a good job so he’s getting better roles.
  - alexjplant 2y ago
    > That terrible Lost in Space movie I'll never defend "Lost in Space" as a cinematic tour-de-force in the traditional sense but I'll be damned if it isn't one of the most quintessentially-90s films ever made. It has Silicon Graphics logos and bubble-shaped silver electronics everywhere. William Hurt managed to find time to slip away from the "Dark City" set to make an appearance. Pre-Felicity Shagwell/post-Rollergirl Heather Graham fends off advances from Joey Tribbiani while the crazy guy from "Leon: The Professional" makes a bunch of bizarre wisecracking non-sequiturs. A brash Big beat remix of the original TV theme blares over the credits immediately following a fight involving a giant CGI (SGI?) spider. I disliked it intensely as a kid but enjoy it a lot in retrospect because of my high-resolution nostalgia goggles.

wlesieutre 2y ago

How about Coming to America combined with Star Wars? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXze55Z2GuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXze55Z2GuY

cdchn 2y ago

The "Riddle of Steel" scene is just phenomenal.

nonameiguess 2y ago

My wife's cousin worked the case where they forced Nic Cage to give back the dinosaur skull he bought for a quarter mil at an illegal auction to the Mongolian government. He had to take every role ever offered to him because he made some amazingly stupid financial decisions.