Seth Rogen has been promoting his new memoir Year Book, and he stopped by The Howard Stern Show to discuss some of the stories that he recounts in his book about his life and his years in Hollywood. One of the crazier stories he shares with Stern involves his 2011 film The Green Hornet, Nicolas Cage, and a very questionable accent choice. Rogen told Stern that Cage pitched him and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, over the phone about appearing in the film as a bald character with hair tattooed onto his head. Rogen thought this concept was “hysterical,” but Cage hadn’t meant it as a joke. However, the next character he pitched, a white Jamaican guy, gave Rogen pause. “It set off a lot of alarms to us,” Rogen said. “Not that a white Jamaican guy is bad, but doing the accent and all that stuff seemed like a world of trouble.“
Rogen, Goldberg, and Cage were all invited to Sony producer Amy Pascal’s house to discuss the potential role. Rogen and Goldberg thought that Cage would just pitch them on the possible performance, which proved to be a very incorrect assumption. “We show up at the house and within 60 seconds, we were all seated in the living room as he stood in front of us reciting a monologue in a Jamaican accent,” Rogen remembered. “We were all just like, what’s happening? A monologue, I should add, that was not in the script — nor did it have anything to do with the script. At which point I was like, I don’t think he’s read the script! There was no indication he had any idea what film we were trying to make, other than it was called The Green Hornet and there was a villain in it.”
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Rogen didn’t know how to react to Cage’s performance and suggestions, so Cage ended up leaving and not taking part in the film at all. However, according to Rogen, the incident wasn’t over. Rogen and Goldberg were in talks to produce Harmony Korine’s film Spring Breakers, which starred Rogen’s former frequent collaborator James Franco. After Franco’s performance as a white rapper came out, Rogen and Goldberg received a call from Cage’s team. “
“We got a call like, Nic Cage wants to talk to you guys,” Rogen explained. “We thought it was about the movie, but we sit down and right away he’s just like, ‘Did you tell James about that meeting we had? The Jamaican meeting?’ We were like, no, I don’t know. He was like, ‘Because that guy in Spring Breakers, was that based on the character I did for you guys?’ I was like, no, absolutely not; I think it was actually based on a Florida rapper. He very clearly didn’t believe me; that was apparent.”
Funnily enough, after Rogen’s interview with Stern was released, Cage released a slightly shady statement via his representation to Entertainment Weekly. “I like Seth,” the statement read. “He’s a funny guy and clearly a good storyteller. I wish him luck with his book.”
