Nicolas Cage Doesn't Like Seth Rogen, And The Pineapple Express Star Knows Exactly Why

Hollywood feuds are a fairly normal occurrence. Put any group of random people together and many of them will become friends, but others simply won't be able to get along with each other. Over the decades we've seen many "Hollywood feuds" develop for any number of reasons. Some of them are legit. Others, may seem petty. However, there apparently been a minor simmering feud going on right under our noses that has only recently come to life. It seems Nicolas Cage and Seth Rogen do not get along.

In a recent profile with GQ Seth Rogen dropped some interesting nuggets of story about a few different celebrities. He says George Lucas once claimed half of California was going to fall into the ocean, and he has some pretty blunt words on the subject of Scientology. However, the most interesting story came about regarding Nicolas Cage, and the time the actor might have co-starred in The Green Hornet.

According to Seth Rogen, Nicolas Cage was being considered to play the villain in the 2011 action-comedy that most of us have already forgotten even happened. It seems Cage himself had some ideas for his character, including at one point playing the role as a bald man with tattooed hair, adding prosthetic lips and "a voice like Edward G Robinson."

Considering that The Green Hornet wasn't exactly a "dark and gritty" superhero movie, that setup maybe wasn't entirely off the table, but then it seems that Cage wasn't done yet. Rogen explains that later when he met with the actor to discuss the role further, Cage had a new plan, to play the role as a "white Bahamian" with a thick Caribbean accent. He then performed a brief scene where he would cover the Green Hornet in pig's blood as part of a "voodoo ritual." Nicolas Cage did not get the role and the part of the Russian mobster was played by Christoph Waltz.

Seth Rogen has talked about this last part of the story before, and it seems that Nicolas Cage was put off when he realized nobody else liked his idea for the villain. It's understandable that Cage could be frustrated because Rogen didn't support his idea for the character. But it turns out that's not the end of the story.

Nicolas Cage's apparent issues with Seth Rogen don't stem entirely from not getting the role in The Green Hornet, rather they stem from this later character description. Rogen claims that he and Cage had another meeting more recently, where the Face/Off actor asked Rogen if he had ever told friend James Franco about his character idea. Cage felt that Franco may have stolen the idea as inspiration for the character he played in the movie Spring Breakers. And this issue was on Cage's mind very recently as this latter meeting only happened within the last year or so. Rogen explains...

The second part actually just happened before the pandemic. I mean, he already doesn’t like me, is the point. So he’ll continue not to like me!

Seth Rogen doesn't specify whether he ever did talk to James Franco about Nicolas Cage's idea, so it's unclear how legit the actor's beef might actually be, but either way, it seems clear these two probably won't be making any movies together anytime soon.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.