Nicolas Cage Reveals The Truth About Trying To Join The Godfather: Part 3 Cast

Anyone who likes movies can likely find a Nicolas Cage film in their top ten or twenty movie list. From Oscar-nominated films like "Leaving Las Vegas" to melt-your-face action like "The Rock" to the cult-favorite "National Treasure," Cage is a guy who can bring enormous crowds and big money to the production studios.

Even with that kind of star power, he is not always a blessing to the filmmakers. As Paul Schrader told Business Insider, "Nic gets your movie financed. That's the good news. The bad news is that he eats up most of your budget in the process of getting it financed because you end up basically paying him the budget. But he still commands those big numbers."

But even the industry's biggest names sometimes miss out on career-defining movies. In a recent appearance on The Hollywood Reporter's annual "Actors Roundtable," Cage spoke about a failed campaign to land a role in "The Godfather III."

The Actors Roundtable is a series that brings together some of the industry's biggest names every year to discuss the craft and what it is like as an actor in Hollywood. In the most recent episode, Nicolas Cage joined Peter Dinklage, Andrew Garfield, Jonathan Majors, and Simon Rex. The Hollywood Reporter asked, "What's a movie you would love to make, but don't think anyone would let you?" Cage responded that he attempted to pull the nepotism card on his paternal uncle Francis Ford Coppola to join one of the most successful films of all time. 

"This is a very embarrassing answer to your question, OK, because it involves family. So Uncle [Francis Ford Coppola] was doing Godfather III, and I said, 'I really think I ought to be in your movie, Uncle. I really think it's a good idea if you would cast me. I think I could play this part.' He was going to cast Andy Garcia, and I said, 'But I just see myself more as James Caan's son, and he's playing Sonny's son. He's not playing Michael's son. He's Sonny's son. I just feel a little more James Caan." It just wasn't going to happen. Nope, not going to happen. So that was a movie I didn't get let in that I really wanted to be in. There."

We will never know what the movie would have been like with Cage instead of Garcia, but we can imagine how different the characters would have been.