The Hollywood Reporter hosted their annual Actors Roundtable and captured Nicolas Cage telling a story about a horse on the set of his new movie trying to kill him.
Cage was explaining this wild tale to fellow actors Andrew Garfield, Simon Rex, Jonathan Majors and Peter Dinklage.
Majors was talking about his experience working on the Western film The Harder They Fall when Cage brought up in the difficulties working with the horse named Rain Man.
Cage explained:
"At least you had a nice horse."
“My horse on ‘Butcher’s Crossing,’ named Rain Man, wanted to kill me.”
Major asked:
“Rain Man? Where’d you shoot that?”
He responded:
“Montana."
“I was in Blackfoot Country."
"Rain Man kept trying to knock me off and would try to run my head into roofs, and then I’d get off and try to be nice to him, and he would headbutt me."
"It was not fun."
"I’ve always had good experiences with animals."
"I always had great experiences with horses, but Rain Man wanted to kill me.”
Cage was working with director Gabe Polsky, who previously directed the Soviet hockey doc Red Army in 2014.
“I’m so glad I got through that movie alive."
“The director’s name was Gabe [Polsky]."
"The last shot, it was just like, ‘Gabe, I’m not getting on a horse again.'"
"Then one of the Native Americans said, ‘Oh, Nic’s just going to get off the horse. We’ll get on …’"
"‘OK, fine. I’ll do it.’ So I got on the horse and literally, again, he kept trying to throw me off."
"I was like, ‘That’s it. That was my last shot, and you had to make it almost like a stunt. You did make it a stunt. You almost killed me on my last shot in the movie.’"
"As you can tell, I’ve got Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from Rain Man.”
Turns out, Major also road Rain Man while making another film in Santa Fe.
Cage was shocked.
He asked:
"You've been on Rain Man?"
Major replied:
"I've ridden Rain Man, I've ridden Sicko."
Cage queried:
"So was he nice to you?"
Major thought he was calmer because he had gotten older, but Cage begged to differ.
Cage believed Rain Man was targeting him specifically.
"It was a clear decision on Rain Man's part that he wanted to kill me."
Fans were eating up his bizarre story.
While Butcher's Crossing wont be out until 2023, Cage's most recent release is the 2021 film Pig. Some say he might be up for an award for that film.
His next release will be The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, where he will play versions of himself.
