Nicolas Cage Says He Turned Down The Role Of Aragorn In 'The Lord Of The Rings'

Pay The GhostWhile Nicolas Cage has expressed a desire to work with Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino  —I surely hope that comment has reached the ears of those filmmakers— he has learned the hard way about opportunity knocking and not answering the call. In his recent chat with Newsweek, the actor says he turned down a key role in what would become a massive worldwide franchise.

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"’Lord of the Rings.’ That trilogy. Aragorn. Or ‘The Matrix,’ " Cage told the magazine about roles that he "probably would have benefited from if circumstances in my life allowed me to make them… But the thing is about those movies, I can watch them. I can enjoy them as an audience member. I don’t really watch my own movies. And so I genuinely do have the joy of watching these —especially with ‘Lord of the Rings.’ "

Asked to clarify, Cage confirms that he was approached for ‘LOTR.’ "There were different things going on in my life at the time that precluded me from being able to travel and be away from home for three years," he said. Previously, Cage has said he was offered the part of Neo in "The Matrix," and offers the same reason why he didn’t take it on.

"Both are great movies, but they both shot for great quantities of time —I mean years. Australia was ’The Matrix,’ and New Zealand was ’The Lord of the Rings.’ I had family obligations, so I’m glad I stayed and had those experiences with my family,” he told MTV in 2007.