Nicolas Cage explains why Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan won't work with him or return his calls

Nicolas Cage name-checked a series of high-profile filmmakers who he said took his role rejections personally, not casting him in any future projects - or even returning his phone calls.

The Oscar-winning actor, 62, speaking Saturday with The New York Times, said that Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Woody Allen were those who past offered him roles he turned down, effectively ending their professional associations.

Nolan ceased returning Cage's calls after he declined to appear in the 2002 motion picture Insomnia, which featured Al Pacino, Hilary Swank and the late Robin Williams, the actor told the newspaper.

'Most of them, they get their feelings hurt and don't call you back,' said the Leaving Las Vegas star. 'It's happened a million times to me.'

Cage said that the filmmakers 'don't call [him] back' after he's spurned them.

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Nolan and Anderson for further comment on the story. 

Cage said he had been in talks to work with Anderson, who recently won the Academy Award for best director for One Battle After Another, on 'a very early movie' in his career.

'He'd shown me a short film with [late actor] Philip Baker Hall - who was in Hard Eight,' Cage said of Anderson. 'And we were going to do something and it didn't work out.'

The star of films such as Con Air, Face/Off and The Rock broached the topic as he promoted his new film Madden, in which he plays the titular role of late football coach John Madden.

He said that the film's director, David O. Russell, is the lone filmmaker to approach him to collaborate on a second project after he turned down the first one.

'David O. Russell offered me a movie a million years ago,' Cage said. 'It was a good movie, and he offered it and I said no. And he’s the only director that I ever said no to who actually came back and offered me another movie.'

Cage said while he was not familiar with the late NFL coach heading into the project - 'I really didn’t know who he was,' he said of Madden - he didn't want to miss out on another chance to collaborate with Russell, a five-time Oscar nominee.

'Anyway, David did call me,' Cage said, 'and it showed a lot of class that he would call me back and invite me again.'

Cage said of Russell, whose filmography includes Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and The Fighter, 'I didn’t want to say no to him again because I have great respect for his talent.' 

Cage said he had 'a beautiful experience' working with Russell, amid reports alleging the mercurial director's conduct led to tense moments on the set of the sports drama, which also features Christian Bale, John Mulaney and Sienna Miller.

'I enjoyed working with David,' Cage said. 'I enjoyed working with Christian, John Mulaney.'

Cage told the paper that 'it was a big challenge' to play the legendary coach turned broadcaster, who died in 2021 at the age of 85.

'I don’t think of myself when I think of John Madden,' said Cage. 

The actor recalled valuable advice given to him to by a late musical icon in approaching the challenging role.

'I was like, "OK, how can I get way out of my comfort zone?" Which is what David Bowie said to me,' said Cage. 'I asked him, "How did you keep reinventing yourself?"

'He said, "I just never got comfortable with anything I was doing." That’s stayed with me.'