The one mythological creature most likely to be real, according to Nicolas Cage: “I feel bad for that cryptid”
For centuries, debate has raged over whether or not history’s most famous mythological creatures exist, and if you ever wanted to know what Nicolas Cage had to say on the matter, you’re in luck.
Not to judge, but he looks like the sort of fella who’d believe in unicorns, werewolves, and/or any of the other mythical beasts to have entered humanity’s folklore. After all, he’s a weird guy, and he did once embark on a quest to find the Holy Grail, so he’s got previous in such far-fetched arenas.
The godfather of ‘Nouveau Shamanic’ acting also has a pet crow called Huginn, named after one of the two ravens who traverse the mortal plane to relay information to Odin, so you can’t say that he doesn’t have at least some interest in certain members of the animal kingdom that may or may not be real.
With that in mind, when he starred in the 2019 straight-to-video action thriller, Primal, as a big-game hunter who specialises in rare species and finds himself going toe-to-toe with a white jaguar made entirely out of questionable CGI, the Academy Award winner also found the time to share his thoughts on which of the planet’s most notorious cryptids stand the strongest chance of existing.
Unfortunately, that was bad news for Bigfoot. “As much as I love the idea, I’m of the mind that he doesn’t exist,” Cage noted. “I think that if Bigfoot did exist, we’d probably have more proof by now.” That’s fair enough, but what about Yetis, which are basically cousins of Bigfoot from the other side of the world?
“It’s usually a bear,” the star pointed out, before heading off on a tangent. “I love the idea of these marvellous creatures, and to that effect, the gorilla was originally thought to be a myth, and turned out to be a fact. The coelacanth was a prehistoric fish which is still alive.” Not quite a cryptid, though, unlike the one-time prey of AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, the Loch Ness Monster?
Once again, Cage shot it down. “Giant eel,” he suggested instead. “If it was a plesiosaur, it would be trying to get air a lot more often.” Then again, he did add, “I don’t think these people are making things up,” so he’s obviously not completely against the idea of Nessie having spent millions of years lurking around a body of water in rural Scotland without ever being properly discovered.
With mythological beasties running thin on the ground, the Chupacabra was next up, and the eccentric idol was willing to give it at least some of the benefit of the doubt, but not much. “I think Chupacabra is probably a diseased dog that lost its hair,” he offered. “I feel bad for that particular cryptid. If it does exist, it’s probably a dog that is rabid.”
If anything, given everything that we know and have heard about him over the years, it’s a bit disappointing that Cage isn’t more open to the notion of cryptids walking among us. Still, from his perspective, Chupacabra is the one that’s slightly closer to fact than full-on fiction.
