Nicolas Cage's changing opinion on his infinite memes isn't reassuring

Nicolas Cage has become a major meme in the last decade due to his extensive filmography but the actor has been left frustrated by the endless internet jokes.

Nicolas Cage has appeared in more than 100 films, meaning internet trolls have a large collection of material to crop and snip the actor’s most over-the-top moments for entertainment purposes. However, as a passionate creative, Cage never expected his craft to become one of the most iconic rage comic memes of all time. 12 years on from his “You Don’t Say?” joke, the Hollywood star is still bothered by the reception.

Nicolas Cage didn’t become an actor for the sake of memes

The first Nicolas Cage meme that springs to mind is taken from 1988’s Vampire Kiss. Of course, his portrayal as literary agent Peter Loew creepily warning his secretary with bulging eyes wasn’t snipped until the 2000s – 2011, to be exact.

However, according to Know Your Meme, the actor has been the subject of online parodies since 2005, including a Nicolas Cage Is A Vampire, referring to an eBay auction of an 1870 portrait depicting a man that looks exactly like Cage. The photo had not been edited, but it plays on the star’s character diversity and his extensive portfolio. In short, he’s portrayed so many roles that he can perform as anyone.

With his newest project, Dream Scenario, hitting theaters in November, the 59-year-old is prepared to become a GIF once more as he’s accepted he has “no control”.

“I might have been the first actor who went through a kind of meme-ification,” he told The Guardian. “One person had cherrypicked from all these different movies where I was having meltdowns, but without any regard for how the character got to that place.”

The celebrity admitted his frustration over concerns viewers only took note of his eccentric characters because “I got into acting because I was moved by film performance more than any other art form,” he claimed. “I didn’t get into movies to become a meme.”

Over the years, the Oscar-winning star expected the spoofs to die down and draw attention to his projects, but he seemingly never did. “I had no control over it,” he adds.

Nicolas’ The Flash cameo wasn’t totally different to what he filmed on set

In the 1990s, Cage was slated to portray Superman in Tim Burton’s Superman Lives, but the production never made it to the big screen. The opportunity arrived again in 2023’s The Flash, where he donned the famous blue suit and red cape. However, what he filmed did not make the final cut.

Instead of standing in another dimension, witnessing the destruction with zero lines, Cage was portrayed fighting a giant spider, which he firmly says he never filmed. Nicolas doesn’t believe it was AI but nevertheless, he’s branded the technology as inhumane.

“That was not what I did. I don’t think it was [created by] AI,” he said. “AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane. You can’t get more inhumane than artificial intelligence.”

He continued: “I just think that they did something with it, and again, it’s out of my control.”