10 Recent Movie Truths We've Just Found Out

10. Nicolas Cage Was Never Paid For Starring In Leaving Las Vegas

Nicolas Cage won a well-earned Best Actor Oscar for his sublime performance as suicidal alcoholic Ben Sanderson in Leaving Las Vegas, though the film's writer-director, Mike Higgis, recently revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Cage ended up doing the role for free.

That wasn't his choosing, however - it's simply that the agreed $100,000 fee was literally never paid to Cage.

The film, which was made for around $4 million, was a victim of the much-maligned "Hollywood accounting. Basically, production company Lumiére Pictures claimed that it never turned a profit despite clearing almost $50 million at the box office, and that's without factoring in home video sales.

Due to the way payouts were structured on the indie drama, neither Cage nor Figgis received their promised $100,000 salaries. Considering the film helped propel them both into more lucrative work, however, Figgis ultimately let it slide. He said:

"Whatever. I mean, my career then took off again, and the next film I did, I got really well paid. And within a year [Nic] was earning $20 million a film, so that was quite good."