Nicolas Cage Once Gave $20,000 In Roulette Winnings To An Orphanage
Even though Nicolas Cage is currently working on two different projects (his turn as Tiger King Joe Exotic for an 8-part miniseries and his is turn as Nicolas Cage in the movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) he’s bored enough in quarantine that he’s considering teaching his pet crow, which eats Sheba Perfect Portions cat food, to say “cock” instead of calling him an asshole every time he walk in the door. At least that’s what he told his friend Marilyn Manson in a recent interview for Interview magazine. In fact, Nic and Marilyn spent a good portion of their interview talking about cocks (Marilyn compared his to a mummified hand Nic once owned, which tracks) but they managed to keep them in their pants long enough to talk about a the time Nicolas won $20,000 at roulette and gave it all away to a Bahamian orphanage. Which also tracks.
In between Nic and Marilyn trying to out-eccentric each other (which sounds a bit like “lol, I’m so random!”, “no! I’M so random, you don’t even know!”), Marilyn teased out a couple of sad yet perfectly believable truths about Nic’s life in Las Vegas. One of which is the fact that Nic hasn’t gambled in over 30 years saying “you can’t live in Vegas if you’re a gambler. I’ve seen it destroy people. Of all the addictions, I think it might be the worst.” That said, the last time he did, it was a boon for a local orphanage in The Bahamas.
MANSON: I was asking you about magic numbers, which does tie into the fact that you live in Vegas. Do you gamble?
CAGE: The last time I gambled was about 30 years ago. I was in the Bahamas, and I walked into a casino and felt like I had my mojo with me, like nothing could go wrong. My game was roulette. I went in with $200, and I didn’t miss a number, so much so that even the lady spinning the wheel said, “Nothing sweeter than a repeater.” In 20 minutes I turned $200 into $20,000, so I went and found an orphanage in the Bahamas, met all the kids and the headmistress, and said, “This is for you.” I put the 20 grand in her hand, walked away, and never gambled again, because if I did, it would ruin the power of that moment.
While some might consider marrying International Woman of Mystery Erika Koike a gamble, I’m guessing Nic’s not counting that. Nic also talked a little about the new International Woman of Mystery in his life, 26-year-old girlfriend Riko Shibata. That’s the woman he brought to view his New Orleans tomb. After joking about cock blocking Marilyn by hogging the mic at his FaceTime wedding (Nic was the only guest and sang Love Me Tender), Nic said:
There was no “Coooooock” block! But let me say one thing: You are blessed. Since this whole thing happened to us—and of course I feel terrible for everyone who has succumbed to this horrifying virus— I have not seen Riko [Shibata, Cage’s girlfriend] for six months. As soon as we got back from New York, she had to go to Japan, and now all Americans are banned indefinitely from flying to Japan. She can’t come here because then she can’t go back to Japan without being put in a government facility for weeks on end. So you’re blessed. I’m here with my cats and my crow and my occasional improvisational situation comedies that I do on voicemail, but that’s about it.
Here’s what Google gives you when you try to find out who exactly this Riko Shibata is.
She’s a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, embedded in the U.S. Constitution and she’s hiding in plain sight. Everybody needs to pray for those poor orphans because I think Nic is gambling again!
Here are some shots of Nic from his Interview photoshoot as well as one from the set of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent featuring Pedro Pascal.
Pic: Interview Magazine via Instagram