Nicolas Cage has said he would like to be called a "thespian" rather than an "actor".
The Ghost Rider star, 57, explained his perceived difference between the two words, and why he was more inclined to self-identify as a thespian, in a new interview with Variety.
On the latest episode of Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, which was released on Thursday, December 30, Cage said: "For me it always implies, 'Oh, he’s a great actor, therefore he's a great liar.'"
So, Cage said, he prefers the term thespian despite the risk of sounding like a "pretentious a**hole".
"Thespian means you're going into your heart, or you’re going into your imagination, or your memories or your dreams, and you're bringing something back to communicate with the audience," he added
Cage starred in more than 100 films since the 1984 rom-com Valley Girl catapulted him to fame.
It comes as Cage landed his first magazine cover with his fifth wife Riko Shibata, 27.
The couple, who tied the knot in February in Las Vegas, recently graced the cover of Flaunt magazine, which the National Treasure star said Shibata "loved".
"We were out there doing our thing," Cage said of the photoshoot. "We did something kind of historic - photographing in 117 degree weather and building sandcastles. I don’t think that’s been done before. And Riko loved it!"
Matthew Bedard, who interviewed Cage, said in the accompanying piece that there had been a "couple of photo setups that needed slight reworking given their potential to connote a stereotype."
The journalist specified: "That of the demure, submissive, and ornamental Asian female."
Discussing this stereotypical image further, Cage said: "That's not me and Riko. Her getting me coffee, waiting on me, or some kind of servitude. And that's not been my experience with other Asian women, abroad or here."
Cage had previously been married to Patricia Arquette from 1995 to 2001, Lisa Marie Presley in 2002, Alice Kim from 2004 to 2016, and Erika Koike in 2019.
His marriage to Koike ended in March 2019 just four days after their Las Vegas wedding. The actor was granted a divorce two months later. Cage shares a 15-year-old son, Kal-El, with Kim and a 30-year-old son, Weston, with ex-partner Christina Fulton.