the unbearable weight of two-headed snakes

Rarely does a profile of Nicolas Cage disappoint, and the latest from GQ is no exception. 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent star chatted with GQ about his career, embracing being a meme, and … dropping tens of thousands of dollars on a two-headed snake. 

“I was having dreams about two-headed eagles,” Cage said. “And then the next day, somebody calls me and says, ‘Oh, I have a two-headed snake you might be interested in buying.’ And I’m dreaming about two-headed eagles. And it costs like 80 grand. I said, ‘I’ll do it. Here, I’ll take it.'” 

But Cage apparently got more than he bargained for. He later had to get rid of the snake, as needing to “put a spatula between the two heads” and give “them two different mice and let them eat separately” became “too much for me to handle.” Cage donated the snake to New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo in 2008, and it died in 2021. 

Cage previously mentioned his snake friend in Interview Magazine, recalling how he brought it out at a party and “everybody was freaked out by it.” He also noted director Werner Herzog wanted to put the snake in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, but Cage refused, declaring, “No, I’m not putting it into the movie because this is personal.”

Cage also has a talking crow at home (which he says calls him an “a–hole”), and according to GQ, when the owner of a local pet store recently died, the actor took in “a couple turtles” and a “fish with a bum eye that he felt bad for.” 

Cage stars as himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and the GQ piece delves into the “meme-fied version” of him that has developed over the years. Cage described the movie as his way of “embracing” this — but he did tell GQ he wants to refute the “misconception that I’m crazy.”