Nicolas Cage has defended his decision to star in so many VOD movies, saying that he needed money to care for his mother.
The Ghost Rider star, 58, opened up about his recent job choices in an interview with GQ. As well as explaining what he was spending his money on, the actor hit back at criticism that he was treating films as paycheck projects and insisted he put his heart into every role.
In the 90s and 00s, Cage was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, appearing in hit movies like Face Off, The Family Man, and National Treasure. However, in recent years he's appeared to be much less selective about his work, appearing in dozens of films that bypassed cinema release and generally slipped under the radar.
This - alongside reports that he owed the IRS $6.3 million in taxes - led to people suggesting that Cage was taking on any old project because he was strapped for cash.
Chatting to GQ, the actor explained that he was taking on more obscure roles to avoid filing for bankruptcy - but added that part of the reason he was so broke was that he was looking after his ill mother, Joy Vogelsang.
"I’ve got all these creditors and the IRS and I’m spending $20,000 a month trying to keep my mother out of a mental institution, and I can’t," he told GQ, adding: "It was just all happening at once."
Cage went on to defend his career choices, insisting that - while he was taking on a lot of random jobs - this didn't mean that he was giving any less than 100% to every single role.
"When I was doing four movies a year, back to back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all," he said.
"Some of them were terrific, like Mandy, but some of them didn’t work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that – that I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring."
Cage's mother passed away last year at the age of 85.
As reported by The Sun, the actor's film director brother, Christopher, wrote on Facebook: "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."
Speaking to Playboy back in 1996, Nicolas spoke candidly about his mom's health, saying: "She was plagued with mental illness for most of my childhood. She was institutionalized for years and went through shock treatments.
"She would go into these states that lasted for years. She went through these episodes of poetry – I don’t know what else to call it.
"She would say the most amazing things, beautiful but scary. I’m sure they had an impact on me.
"If I look at home movies of when I was two years old, I see that she was a very caring mother – the way she touched me."