Nicolas Cage has admitted that outside the dark roles he plays onscreen, he is a “goth” at heart, with the actor so steeped in the subculture that he actually owns a pet crow.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times amid another critical and cult resurgence — for the acclaimed Pig and the upcoming The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, where he plays himself — the prolific actor revealed that his crow named Hoogan lives in a geodesic dome that Cage calls his Las Vegas home.
Cage’s crow also might be a parrot, as the actor claims “he has taken to calling me names … it’s comical, at least, it is to me.” For instance, when Cage leaves the room and says “Bye” to his bird, Hoogan allegedly answers back, “Ass.”
“Crows are very intelligent. And I like their appearance, the Edgar Allan Poe aspect,” Cage added, confusing ravens for crows. “I like the goth element. I am a goth.”
It’s unclear why Cage named his crow “Hoogan”; a basic Google search suggests that the bird may be named after Crow Hogan, a character in the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series. In addition to his crow, Cage is also a cat guy, owning a pair of felines named Merlin and Teegra.
Cage will likely go full “goth” for one of his next roles, portraying the vampire Dracula in the upcoming horror comedy Renfeld, which comes nearly a quarter-century after the actor played a quasi-vampire in the 1989 dark comedy Vampire’s Kiss.