Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage has revealed he embarked upon a “quest” in search of the Holy Grail in a lengthy Q&A with The New York Times Magazine on Wednesday.
In the interview Cage opened up on some of his past extravagant purchases and his search for historical artifacts. A few years ago it was revealed he had acquired a genuine dinosaur skull, but was obliged to return it for legal purposes.
"The dinosaur skull was an unfortunate thing, because I did spend $276,000 on that," he told the magazine's David Marchese.
"I bought it at a legitimate auction and found out it was abducted from Mongolia illegally, and then I had to give it back. Of course it should be awarded to its country of origin. But who knew? Plus, I never got my money back. So that stank."
According to the actor, it was that incident that ignited a new interest in him: a quest for the Holy Grail.
“It was almost like National Treasure’, said the 55-year-old actor, in a reference to the film he starred in.
Cage appeared in the 2004 box office hit portraying the character Ben Gates, who journeyed to find rumoured treasure dating back to the founding of the United States.
Though Cage he didn't specify when this “quest” he embarked upon supposedly took place, he did say it was during a stretch of years when he was avoiding alcohol and meditating daily.
“I went years where all I was doing was meditating three times a day and reading books on philosophy, not drinking whatsoever. That was the time when I almost went on - you might call it a grail quest,” revealed the actor.
“I started following mythology and I was finding properties that aligned with that. It was almost like National Treasure.”
At some point in the interview it was suggested Cage had gone on a metaphorical quest for the treasure, but the actor swiftly clarified he did indeed go to real places on this “quest”, adding he traced the Grail's history through England.
He also mentioned rumoured references to the grail being in Glastonbury.
“If you go to Glastonbury and go to the Chalice Well, there's a spring that does taste like blood. Legend had it that in that place was a grail chalice, or two cruets rather, one of blood and one of sweat. But that led to there being talk that people had come to Rhode Island, and they were looking for something as well,” the celeb shared.
Twitter users shared their impressions of the revealing interview by the actor.
I love that since its Nic Cage, I don't know if searching for the holy grail is metaphorical or literal until I read the article.
— David (@drmagnificent) August 7, 2019
cage did a really good introspective into his iconic roles on the GQ youtube channel, you should see it.
— Carlos L. Maidana (@Lemdoser) August 7, 2019
Nic Cage is a legend and the world is a much better place with him in it. Great actor. Great movies. He’s awesome. 😎🌝🔥🤘🏻
— Barth Gimble (@GimbleIi) August 7, 2019
I could listen to him talk about his inspirations for Red in "Mandy" all day. Golems, mysticism, I'm starting to think he's the only REAL actor we've got left.
— Corey Arbor Day (@Undeadp00l) August 7, 2019
The Leaving Las Vegas star ultimately admitted the search for the grail evolved into something more metaphorical and posed the theory that the Holy Grail was a metaphor for the Earth.
“What I ultimately found is: What is the Grail but Earth itself? The metaphor for me is the earth. The divine object is Earth,” said the Oscar-winning actor.
