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Nicholas Cage Refused to Lay a Finger on Kat Dennings at an Audition

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The world may never know if Nic Cage is a good actor or a bad actor or if his movies are good or bad, but we do know one thing about him: he’s a gentleman.

Nicholas Cage went so far out of his way to not make Kat Dennings uncomfortable at an audition that he may have cost her the role. Dennings’ sides involved her character being physically restrained by Cage, and Cage simply refused to lay a finger on her, staying on the other side of the room the entire time, she told Variety.

So there was a film, very dramatic film that did come out and was nominated for a bajillion Oscars and was amazing. That’s all I’ll say about who, but the scene I was reading, this was like the final audition where I was reading with the actor. And in the scene I was being physically restrained by that actor. So the dialogue all had to do with me trying to get free from the guy. I’m pretty young at that point. I’m not nervous, but I know this is a big deal. I’m super excited to be reading with this famous actor and this hugely famous director that I really respect and he’s there and I’m like, “Oh, my God, this is a big deal.” I have everything memorized. I’m ready to get into like the physicality of the scene, but I realized pretty quick that that actor is not going to touch me. He’s also not going to be near me. He was at the other end of the room, which seemed to be his choice, which I was like I’m going to be miming this. So a scene where I am asking to be let go of and physically wriggling out of this man’s grip became a mining session. But I understand and I respect that the actor made that decision. But at the time, it was not great because I was like, “I look like an absolute moron.” I’m not getting this. But I enjoyed it. It was just not what I anticipated.

She immediately relented and admitted the audition was with Nicholas Cage.

All right, it was Nicolas Cage. But the movie I won’t say. I don’t want this to seem like it was life ruining. It was great. In fact, you asked for the worst, but it’s one of the best memories because it was such a huge curveball and such a massive learning experience. And we ended up having such a nice conversation afterwards. It’s like one of my most cherished audition stories and I’m actually really grateful for that experience just because I wanted to be in a room with Nicolas Cage. It probably will never happen again. But what’s nice is that he was so respectful and I think that might have been where it was coming from like, I’m a young girl so he didn’t want to physically touch me and make me uncomfortable. I appreciate it. I really do.

Cage was likely being gentlemanly, but also, grabbing and restraining a bunch of young actresses at an audition, most of whom were probably not well-known, is just a back room whisper campaign waiting to happen.

The thing that’s bothering me is I cannot for the life of me figure out what movie this could have been. The only thing that comes to mind is Adaptation, but Dennings would have only been 14 or 15 when that movie filmed and it was well before she got booked in anything else.

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