Last week, Nicolas Cage made headlines by claiming he is frequently “mistaken” for Nick Cave due to “only one letter” separating their last names. Now, Cave has shared an amusing anecdote about posing as the actor while speaking to a heartbroken man named Diego in Brazil.
In his latest Red Hand Files newsletter, the musician responded to fan questions about the Cage interview by recalling a story of drunkenly stumbling into a bar while he was living in São Paulo, where he met the “downcast” and “maudlin” Diego, who got really excited when the bartender told him he was talking to Nick Cave. Unfortunately, Diego had mixed up Cave’s name with that of his wife’s favorite actor, Nic Cage.
“Diego suddenly became super-animated, jumping around on his stool, saying that he loved me, that he was my greatest fan, and so on and so forth. He kept looking at me, then at his drink, shaking his head in wonder and saying, ‘Nick Cave. Fucking Nick Cave,’” Cave remembered. “I asked him again if he was alright, and he burst into tears and said, ‘My wife kicked me out. Told me never to come back. She says she hates me.’ I was drunk, so I hugged him and asked, ‘Why does she hate you?’ He said, ‘She thinks I’m stupid.’ Then he pointed at me and said, ‘But she fucking loves you. Just completely loves you.’ I said, ‘Really?’ He replied, ‘Yeah, Peggy Sue Got Married is her favourite film. She’s watched it like a hundred times.’”
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When Diego started crying again, Cave thought about explaining the mix-up, but chose to play along instead.
“I said something like, ‘I’m just an ordinary person like you. Hollywood is not all it’s cracked up to be. It can be a cruel place. It gets lonely sometimes,’ and so on,” Cave wrote. “After a while, I began to warm to my theme. I told him that making Raising Arizona was the most extraordinary experience and a highpoint in my career, that John Goodman was a fascinating and complex character, and how it was a real privilege to work with the Coen brothers and that they were ‘masters of their craft’ and all this bullshit.”
Hearing this cheered Diego up and gave him the idea to tell his wife the man he believed to be Nic Cage had said “he’s not stupid, and that he’s a good guy.” However, he also wanted Cave to come along and “put in a good word.” Begging off, Cave used the excuse of having to “be on a movie set early in the morning” and instead penned a handwritten note saying, “Dear Ana, Diego is not stupid. He’s a good guy. Love, Nic Cage.”
“Anyway, these confusions between me and Mr. Cage happen fairly often,” Cave concluded in his newsletter. “But I don’t mind. I’m a fan. Have you guys seen Mandy? My God. What a film.”
This isn’t the first time Nick Cave has written in his newsletter about being mistaken for Nic Cage. In a 2022 entry, the artist shared that a customs officer once told him that they loved him in Face/Off. In that same entry, Cave wrote about actually meeting Cage in Australia several years back.
Cave is wrapping up his current North American tour with the Bad Seeds (get tickets here) ahead of his summer European solo trek (get tickets here).
Content shared from consequence.net.