Nicolas Cage reveals why he turned down roles in The Matrix and Lord of The Rings

Actor says he rejected the film parts in the late 1990s and early 2000s

Nicolas Cage has opened up about previously rejecting roles in major film franchises to prioritise spending time with his family.

The actor plays a fictionalised version of himself in the forthcoming action film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, starring alongside Pedro Pascal and Tiffany Haddish.

Named “Nick Cage” in the film, his character is a fading actor who is on the hunt for the next role to re-energise his career.

This pursuit has meant that he has neglected his 16-year-old daughter Addy (Lily Sheen).

The real-life actor, however, is keen to clarify that this is far from the case when it comes to his own family.

“There’s no version of Nic Cage in reality that doesn’t want to spend time with his children,” he said in an interview with PEOPLE magazine. “There’s no version of Nic Cage that didn’t put family first over career.

“I turned down Lord of the Rings and I turned down Matrix because I didn’t want to go to New Zealand for three years or Australia for three years because I needed to be home with my son Weston. That’s a fact.”

Weston Coppola Cage, Nicolas Cage and Riko Shabata at ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ after party in LA (Getty Images)

Weston Cage Coppola, also an actor, is now 31 and would have been between the ages of eight and 11 at the time the first films of the blockbuster franchises were being filmed.

As well as Weston, Cage has a 16-year-old son, Kal-El, and is expecting another child with his wife Riko Shabata later this year.