Few know that Nicolas Kim Coppola is the real name of Nicolas Cage. Oscar winner for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas (1995), this 59-year-old Californian lived for a long time with the weight of his original last name.
On his father’s side, Nicolas was the nephew of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, as well as Talia Shire, and a cousin of Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola. A feature film family.
but nicholas he did not want to be recognized for this. His goal was to stand out in the world of cinema for his own talent.
So, one day, during the recording of the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), he got fed up with it. Also the jokes on the set served as a spur.
It was told by Nicolas Cage himself In an interview with Wired:
“I changed my name because I was doing a little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High. and I was still Nicolas Coppola. People kept saying things like ‘I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning’, because of Apocalypse Now, with Robert Duvall saying ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning’. It made the job difficult.”
The passage from Nicolas Coppola to Nicolas Cage, riding the wave of Marvel
Thus, he made a decision that would change his life. And Marvel had a lot to do with it.
luke cage He is one of the first African-American characters to star in Marvel comics. Created by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska, Roy Thomas and John Romita Sr., the man also known as Power Man was in charge of fighting crime in Harlem, New York.
Nicolas Coppola, a fan of comics, he saw an opportunity in the character.
“I said ‘I don’t need this.’ So I changed it (his last name from him) to Cage. It’s because of Luke Cage, from the Marvel comics, who was a character I liked, also called Power Man, and John Cage, the composer. He says a lot about everything I’ve been doing since then,” he revealed.
Nicolas Kim Coppola has since been renamed Nicolas Cage. And even he had his stint at Marvel, playing the anti-hero Ghost Rider in the 2007 film.
We leave you below the 8 minute Q&A session with Nicolas Cage for Wired, where he tells, among other things, about the origin of his artistic surname.