When Cage first started out as an actor, he was still using his real last name – Coppola – and is even credited as Nicolas Coppola for his first few roles (via Cheat Sheet). But eventually, Cage tired of the buzz that surrounded him as a Coppola. “Casting agents would spend the entire audition asking about my Uncle Francis,” Cage once told Entertainment Weekly.
His fellow actors weren’t easy on him about it, either. “I was the brunt of jokes because my name was still Coppola,” he explained. “On the set, some of the actors would get together outside my trailer and recite a version of Robert Duvall’s line from ‘Apocalypse Now.'” Instead of saying “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” the thespians would swap out napalm for Nicolas, pronouncing, “I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning.”
Now, all these years later, Cage has become a star in his own right. And he has come together to collaborate with family on occasion, in Coppola’s films like “Rumble Fish,” “The Cotton Club,” and “Peggy Sue Got Married”.
After all, it’s always good to be able to know your family has your back — particularly, if, say, Coppola ever decides to make a fourth “Godfather” film.
