Nicolas Cage and director Mike Figgis never got paid for Leaving Las Vegas
Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis says he and Oscar winner Nicolas Cage never saw their $100k salary for the film
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The bills are still due for Leaving Las Vegas, the lauded 1995 film that earned Nicolas Cage his Academy Award and garnered a handful of other nominations, including Best Director for Mike Figgis. Though the duo got plenty of acclaim, they never saw any actual cash, according to Figgis.
In a new interview for the It Happened In Hollywood podcast, The Hollywood Reporter’s Seth Abramovitch asked Figgis about the “microbudget” of “$3 or $4 million” for the film. “Who knows… I never saw the money. I mean, Nicolas and I never got paid,” Figgis says. “Because they said the film never went into profit.”
Hard to imagine that a film that significant never returned any investment for its key players, but Figgis is clear-eyed about the results: “Whatever,” he concludes. “I mean, you know, in a more philosophical note, of course, my career then took off again, and the next film I did, I got really well paid. … And within a year [Cage] was earning $20 million a film, so that was quite good. I think we were only owed $100,000 each.”
Decades later, neither of them are tracking down the missing paychecks—and Figgis, at least, has a little thing called artistic integrity. “It was a labor of love, and I would have done it for nothing actually,” the filmmaker asserts. “And Nic by the way, God bless him, eccentric dude though he is, he kind of… he bankrolled the preproduction essentially in the sense that he took a suite at the Chateau Marmont for us to rehearse—he rehearsed by getting drunk every night so he could get in the mode.”
Figgis adds, “No, he was heart and soul, he put himself into this, into this character, and the whole production, and was generous to everybody, I have to say.”
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“It was a labor of love, and I would have done it for nothing actually,” the filmmaker asserts. This is the kind of attitude that Hollywood exploits. If they can take advantage of seasoned pros like Figgis and Cage, then younger, aspiring creators don’t stand a chance. Don’t work for corporations for free — Hollywood is already systemically predatory as it is. And even if the payment doesn’t mean a lot to you, those paychecks are the livelihood of your colleagues so you don’t want to set a precedent of mistreating talent and leaving everyone unpaid.
Is that Cyril’s brother?
Leaving Las VegasIf the budget was $3-$4 mil, then for all intent it did make money according to Box Office Mojo at $$32,029,928If the old adage still applies that movie must make at least 3 times the production costs, to include advertising, etc.
Ah the Hollywood accounting trick. Make sure the money goes to the people at the top and maybe the main star of the movie/TV show, screw over the rest of the cast and crew.And it’s perfectly legal..
They should fire their agents if the agreed to a cut of the net.Always get a cut of the gross.Even I know that. Who doesn’t know that?
Who doesn’t know that? People 30 years ago when this was common
he rehearsed by getting drunk every night so he could get in the modeYeah, that was the reason…
It’s more authentic this way, nobody in real life leaves Las Vegas with all their money.
This sucks and is definitely illegal. Someone got $200,000 that didn’t belong to them, and should never be allowed to do it again.
Unethical, yes… illegal is a stretch. Bad contracts happen and shenanigans like this were a thing 25+ years ago. Art Buchwald’s case with Paramount about Coming to America exposed it in the early 90s but its possible this agreement was signed before that was well known. A 1995 film could have contracts signed a few years before.