“What’s happening?”: The audition for ‘The Green Hornet’ that made Nicolas Cage hate Seth Rogen
Hollywood is an industry that doesn’t function without collaboration. One director’s vision may be the driving force behind a picture, or the star power of a single performer may push a movie into the stratosphere, but simply put, without the work of hundreds of individuals working together to make a project happen, the cinematic world would be a far starker place. Naturally, this means that actors like Nicolas Cage often have to commit themselves to enacting somebody else’s vision.
Cage is a consummate professional when it comes to delivering his work. A truly devoted member of the acting world, Cage often seems to operate on the strange side of the art form, owing largely to his dedication to honing his craft. However, sometimes, the kind of thinking that makes him a cinematic wildcard can also breed some difficult situations to swallow.
It’s something Seth Rogen found out when he began auditioning for the villainous role of Benjamin Chudnofsky for his superhero star turn in The Green Hornet. The opposition to Rogen’s hero, Cage was keen to play the part in a slightly off-kilter fashion. “The Green Hornet was something I wanted to do. I think Michel Gondry is very talented, and I had hoped it would work. But I think Seth Rogen and Michel had a different direction for the character totally than the way I wanted to go,” explained Cage.
The truth is, Cage wanted to move the character in a different direction: “I wasn’t interested in just being straight-up bad guy who was killing people willy-nilly. I had to have some humanity and try to give it something where you could understand why the character was the way he was. But there wasn’t enough time to develop it”. While that might seem like a completely fair expectation, Rogen later revealed that it wasn’t the humanity of Chudnofsky that was the issue and more that Cage wanted to play the role with a Jamaican accent.
Rogen noted that Cage wanted to play the part of a “white Bahamian” who would also perform a “voodoo ritual” on the hero. It was an uncomfortable premise that got even more uncomfortable when Cage suggested they talk it over in person. “We show up at the house, and within 60 seconds, we were all seated in the living room as he stood in front of us, reciting a monologue in a Jamaican accent. We were all just like, what’s happening? A monologue, I should add, that was not in the script – nor did it have anything to do with the script. At which point I was like, I don’t think he’s read the script! There was no indication he had any idea what film we were trying to make, other than it was called The Green Hornet and there was a villain in it.”
If that made things awkward, they would get dramatically more strange when Spring Breakers would be released in 2012. James Franco’s role in the movie in which he plays a villainous white Bahamian. With Rogen lined up to work with Cage again, the angry actor demanded answers: “Did you tell James [Franco] about that meeting we had? The Jamaican meeting?”
Rogen continues: “He was like, ‘Because that guy in Spring Breakers, was that based on the character I did for you guys?’ I was like, no, absolutely not, I think it was actually based on a Florida rapper. He very clearly didn’t believe me.” When asked why he shared the story publicly, Rogen responded: “I mean, [Cage] already doesn’t like me, is the point. So he’ll continue not to like me!”
However, during a conversation with Entertainment Weekly Cage tried to throw water on the situation, saying: “I like Seth. He’s a funny guy and clearly a good storyteller. I wish him luck with his book.” Collaboration is essential for making good Hollywood movies, but with every successful working relationship there are dozens that never made the cut.
