Nicolas Cage is known for never mincing his words, but the actor's latest revelation might just be the most mind-blowing yet.
Cage, 59, has revealed he believes his earliest memories after from before he was even born, as he claims he recalls being in his mother's womb.
He made the stunning revelation during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday (May 1), where he claimed: "Listen, I know this sounds really far out and I don’t know if it’s real or not, but sometimes I think I can go all the way back to in-utero and feeling like I could see faces in the dark or something.
"I know that sounds powerfully abstract, but that somehow seems like maybe it happened."
Cage added: "Now that I am no longer in utero, I would have to imagine it was perhaps vocal vibrations resonating through to me at that stage.
"That’s going way back. I don’t know. That comes to mind. I don’t even know if I remember being in utero, but that thought has crossed my mind."
While it may sound unbelievable, some studies have shown it's not impossible for people to have memories from before they were born.
According to Science.org, a 2013 study showed that fetuses can hear sounds from outside their mother's womb and understand them well enough to retain memories of them after birth.
However, the study only looked at babies up to a month old so it is still unknown whether those memories could be retained into later life.
Most adults would not have any memories of their life before the age of three - let alone the time before they were born - due to what is known as infantile amnesia, meaning memories from a very young age are not as firmly stored while the brain is still developing as they are when a person grows older.
Cage's mother, Joy Vogelsang, passed away at the age of 85 in May 2021, having been in hospital for two weeks before her death.
His brother, Christopher Coppola, had announced the news of her death on social media, telling his followers: "My mama died at 10:33pm 5/26.
"I was with her all day but left for a couple hours and missed her passing by a couple hours so wasn't able to hold her hand to give her my love and affection before her journey to peace land.
"She had a very hard life with mental health issues. In all of that painful emotional chaos she still managed to teach me something super important... I learned from my mama what 'affection' really means."
