Nicolas Cage Says He Plans To Retire From Movies Soon, Is Interested In TV

Nicolas Cage says that his film career is coming to a close soon, noting that he’s planning on hanging it up after “three or four more.” Cage spoke with Vanity Fair for a new interview promoting his new film Dream Scenario and during the conversation he noted that he’s ready to retire from film soon, though he may be open to do episodic television. You can check out some of the highlights below:

On his plan to retire from film: “ I like staying fresh. I mean, I like to keep mixing it up. I don’t want to get stuck in any genre or any performance style. I want to do it all. And I feel that I’ve, at this point – after 45 years of doing this; that in over 100 movies – I feel I’ve pretty much said what I’ve had to say with cinema. And I’d like to leave on a high note and say, ‘Adios.’ I think I have to do maybe three or four more movies before I can get there, and then hopefully switch formats and go into some other way of expressing my acting.”

On his remaining films: “Well, I’d like to. I would’ve liked to have left on a high note, like Dream Scenario. But I have other contracts that I have to fulfill, so we’ll see what happens. I mean, I am going to be very severe and very astringent on the selection process moving forward. But for me to do another movie, I do want to explore other formats… I would say, ‘Adios’ [after Dream Scenario if he could]. I did what I had to do with cinema and I want to move on now. But I’m not there yet, but hopefully I will be. We’ll see.”

On possibly doing television: “I am very interested in immersion streaming with episodic television. I have seen things that can be done now with characters and the time they’re given to express themselves. I saw Bryan Cranston stare at a suitcase for an hour on one episode of Breaking Bad. We don’t have time to do that in a feature film, so maybe television is the next best step for me. We’ll see.”

On wanting to spend more time with his family: “More importantly, I want to spend some quality time with my family. And I’m going to be 60 next month and my dad died at 75. So it’s like, if I’m lucky, I have more years than he did, but I don’t know. And so what am I going to do with my next 15 years? Well, what’s important? What’s important is my children and I have a baby daughter. And if I can find an episodic show to do that stays in one place where I don’t have to keep leaving, we can all be together. That, on a personal level, would be great. But also I’m a student and I don’t know if I have anything else to learn in cinema. I might have something to learn in television.”