Nicolas Cage Has No Regrets About Turning Down This Billion-Dollar, Oscar-Winning Franchise

Nicolas Cage has done it all. He's been an action star, a superhero, and a voice actor. The Oscar-winning actor has had such an enviable career in Hollywood that he doesn't even think twice about the time he missed out on one of the most iconic comedy roles of all time.

Everyone knows Mike Myers as the voice of Shrek, but in an alternate timeline, Cage is the world's favorite ogre. When directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson adapted "Shrek" from a 1990s children's book, they knew they needed a top-notch performer in the lead role. The actor playing Shrek needed to be equally good at getting laughs and sympathy from the audience, and they considered several different performers for the role. Famously, Chris Farley voiced Shrek in test footage before his death in 1997, but the filmmakers also offered the part to Cage.

In 2013 Cage told The Sun that while he considered taking the role, he ultimately turned it down because he didn't want to look like an ogre, even in animation. "Shrek" went on to win an Oscar, and the one-off movie turned into a vast franchise with sequels, TV show tie-ins, and spinoff movies. Though he missed out, Cage has no regrets about turning down "Shrek," and over the years has further elaborated that the real reason he turned down the role has less to do with Shrek's looks than his ability to relate to kids.

He turned down "Shrek," but Cage soon found himself in a vocal booth anyway. Cage first voiced an animated character in 2001 "Christmas Carol: A Movie," and ever since, voice acting has been a regular part of his repertoire. In 2013 Nicolas Cage was promoting a new animated movie where he voiced a leading character. In "The Croods," Cage plays a caveman named Grug who's driving force in life is protecting his family from the dangerous world that exists outside their cave. As a character, Grug is a bit rough around the edges, not unlike a certain ogre, which lead to Cage being asked about his history with "Shrek" during an appearance on The Today Show.

"Well, the news said [I turned 'Shrek' down] because of vanity. I think that's a bit strong. But the truth is, I'm not afraid to be ugly in a movie," Cage said. He pointed out that in some live-action movies like "Adaptation" he doesn't look particularly good. He explained that his decision to turn down "Shrek" had more to do with his thoughts on how kids relate to characters in movies. Cage compared Shrek as a character to Grug, saying, "I want kids to look at Grug and go, 'Well he's a little scary, but he's a big teddy bear. And I wasn't sure I could do that with Shrek." Cage had his doubts about Shrek as a character, and he's not the only actor who thought the movie looked like a bad idea at first glance.

Mike Myers ultimately became the ogre everyone knows and loves today, but when he first heard about the movie, he wasn't exactly convinced it would be any good. In an interview with Vulture, Myers explained that he wasn't in a great headspace the first time that "Shrek" producer Jeffrey Katzenberg pitched him the film. Myers had just walked out of an emotional premiere screening for "Saving Private Ryan," and he was still reeling from the experience when Katzenberg approached him. Myers said that when Katzenberg told him the name of the movie, "I [went], 'Well, that's the worst f****** title I've ever heard in my life.' It's the sound you make after drinking too many Molson Canadians. 'Agh! Shreck!'"

Katzenberg convinced Myers, in spite of his reservations about the movie's title, to take a deeper look at the movie. Myers was shocked to find that the movie with the disgusting name had some genuine depth to it. "The fairy tale is a Eurocentric form, dealing with class, right? To say, 'Yes, we know it's Eurocentric but it can be more inventive and inclusive,' and to have an African American voice in Donkey in it, I thought it was brilliant," Myers said. 

Those deeper themes are some of the things that only adults notice in "Shrek," and they're what convinced Myers to make the movie. He experimented with Shrek's accent, trying to give the character a working-class voice, and that's how the character ended up with the iconic voice fans know today.