In the not-so-distant past I used to make my living writing about movies. At the same time, I was hoping to make a really good living writing the movies myself. Indeed, I was one of the most pathetic of cliches -- the entertainment journalist who aspired to be a screenwriter. Thankfully, I got over it. So I was reviewing some of my old notes today and found this priceless snippet from an interview I did with Nicolas Cage at a "National Treasure" junket in Beverly Hills. I should point out that at the time of the interview I was working on a comedic screenplay called "Chow Time" about a competitive eater. Note how I deftly steered the conversation into self-serving territory...
Me: Is there subject matter out there that you’ve yet to tackle, but would like to … I dunno, like, competitive eating or something like that?
Cage: Competitive eating? What is competitive eating?
Me: You know, the annual Coney Island hot dog eating contest.
Cage: (Laughs) That’s interesting.
Me: Well, something like that. Some unusual subject matter you’ve not done yet.
Cage: That sounds great.
Me: If you got a competitive eating script, you’d be interested?
Cage: That would definitely … I mean, it’s already piquing my interest. Competitive eating, I’ve never heard of that before. It sounds like fun.
Me: There’s a whole subculture out there all over the country. The biggest event is Coney Island. The champ is this little Japanese guy who weighs about 130 pounds and can put down something like 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
Cage: What’s this about? I mean, he’s skinny?
Me: 130 pounds.
Cage: What’s the guy have, like, a tapeworm or something? How’s he do it?
Me: Must have a trapdoor in there somewhere.
Cage: That’s wild. Um, yeah, that would be an interesting script to me. That’s a great idea, and I would encourage you to write it. (I laugh) Somebody’s going to take that idea after they read this article. That’s a good one.
Me: Okay, well, when I write it, I’m sending it over to you right away.
Lol! It is definiNICly a neat little cameo Lady Trueheart! For some reason it seems really familiar but i don't think we have it anywhere here, thanks for posting!
How in the world did I miss this thread!!! That's hilarious!!! I mean, when you think about it... If Cage were to ever consider something like that, especially if it were to require eating hot dogs, how would he do it. He doesn't really like doing eat scenes or eat in public, though I've seen Tea Leoni stuff a chocolate cake in his mouth during "The Family Man" !! LOL!
And, we know he didn't really want to alter his body image for "Adaptation" thus, the fat suit, or when he was being considered for "The Wrestler" so....
But, Cage being "The Maverick" that he is, and already peeking an interest, it would be hilarious to see him involved in a project such as competitive eating! Hilarious indeed!