Days after American actor Nicolas Cage shared an anecdote about being mistaken for Australian musician Nick Cave, the latter has now chimed in to say that theirs is a shared experience.
Cage’s comments were made in an interview with The Guardian last week, responding to a reader’s question about a 2022 tall tale from Cave which recounts the pair apparently meeting due to their similar names.
“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by where I’m not mistaken for Nick Cave,” Cage explained.
“I do remember that Cave was very nice,” he added. “We were at an animal sanctuary, I believe – I think Sealy Animal Hospital in Texas – and he was terrific. I said hello and wanted to shake his hand. I said: ‘Only one letter separates us – G. Nick Cave, Nick Cage.’”
Cage’s original story was shrouded in mystery, given that it heavily referenced Cave’s own tale from 2022 in which he responded to readers of his Red Hand Files website who respectively asked if Cave has ever met Cage, or added an “untrue component to a story to make it more interesting than it actually is.”
Cave’s ensuing story saw him recounting a case of mistaken identity at the Healesville Sanctuary in his home state of Victoria, before apparently meeting Cage in the back of a local pub where the actor claimed that “Only one letter separates us!”
Though Cave’s 2022 post is a clear shaggy dog story, a new post on his Red Hand Files site has seen him respond to fans asking about the actor’s recent interview. “I read Nic Cage’s piece in The Guardian, and I relate to his experience,” Cave explained. “There has always been a persistent and somewhat perplexing confusion surrounding our names.”
As he continued, Cave recounted a lengthy story in which he visited a bar while living in São Paulo and met a Brazilian man named Diego who mistook him for Cage, with the musician adopting the guise of the actor due to the pity he felt for the young man.
“After a while, I began to warm to my theme,” Cave explained. “I told him that making Raising Arizona was the most extraordinary experience and a highpoint in my career, that John Goodman was a fascinating and complex character, and how it was a real privilege to work with the Coen brothers and that they were ‘masters of their craft’ and all this bullsh–t.”
“Anyway, these confusions between me and Mr. Cage happen fairly often. But I don’t mind. I’m a fan,” Cave wrote at the end of his story. “Have you guys seen Mandy? My God. What a film.”
