Nicolas Cage Reveals Fans Used To Slap Him At The Airport

Nicolas Cage used to get slapped by fans at the airport.

The 59-year-old actor has recalled the bizarre trend inspired by 1987 romantic comedy ‘Moonstruck’, which he starred in with ‘Believe’ hitmaker Cher.

Speaking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’, he said: “For the longest time, back from ‘Moonstruck’, I would walk to the airport and people just had a habit of saying, ‘Snap out of it!’ from Moonstruck – the Cher ‘snap out of it’ [line] – and I did get slapped a few times.”

He added: “Oh yeah, I did! And that, you know, it’s part of the job.”

When it comes to why fans felt compelled to act in such a way, Nicolas joked they might have been aiming for a role.

He quipped: “I think maybe [they think] I’ll cast them in something. Who knows?”

The actor admitted he almost turned down the movie but agreed to take the role in a deal with his agent because he actually wanted to make 1989 horror comedy ‘Vampire’s Kiss’.

He previously told USA Today: “I made that movie on a deal with my then-agent Ed Limato. I was desperately trying to get him to say yes to me doing ‘Vampire’s Kiss’.

“He said: ‘No, you’re not going to wear those stupid plastic things. I want you to look handsome! Do Moonstruck!’

“And I said, ‘I don’t want to do Moonstruck!’ I wanted to be punk rock – I didn’t want to do a schmaltzy movie about opera. But I said, ‘If I do Moonstruck, will you let me do Vampire’s Kiss?’ And he said OK.

“The truth is, I love ‘Moonstruck’. Now that I’m older, I see the value in [it]. I haven’t seen ‘Moonstruck’ in a million years, but I think it’s powerfully romantic and I love all the performances.”

Meanwhile, his enduring memory of the movie was him and Cher being “freezing in Brooklyn in the winter at night”.