Home Headlines Headlines Opinion Why Tiger King Role Is Perfect for the Legend That Is Nicolas Cage

Why Tiger King Role Is Perfect for the Legend That Is Nicolas Cage

Aubrey Hansen
Last Updated September 23, 2020 1:54 PM
  • The Tiger King has been a massive success for Netflix, spawning the legend of Joe Exotic and a thousand memes.
  • The rumors about who would play Exotic in an adaptation of his life have been swirling for weeks now.
  • It’s not going to be Brad Pitt. The role has been given to resident Hollywood eccentric Nicolas Cage.

When I learned that Nicolas Cage is set to make his TV acting debut  playing ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic, I didn’t even flinch.

Hey, it’s 2020. The year of absolute insanity. So, why not?

Sure, the Tiger king himself hilariously earmarked Brad Pitt for the role, while David Spade and Rob Lowe were seemingly in the running.

But Nicolas Cage?

Nicolas Cage, Tiger King
Source: Twitter 

Hold up, Nicolas Cage is perfect to play Joe Exotic

While many fans of the Tiger King show scratch their heads at the idea of the worst method actor in Hollywood playing Joe Exotic, it actually makes sense.

For as crazy as Joe Exotic is, if he was a free man and able to cash in on his fame, he’d probably be Nicolas Cage.

Joe Exotic owned tigers? Nicolas Cage bought himself an octopus.

Over the years, Cage has managed to blow his $150 million fortune  on absolute nonsense.

Nicolas cage, octopus
Joe Exotic owned tigers. Nicolas Cage is more of an octopus kind of guy. | Source: Twitter

From buying haunted mansions and a private island to shrunken pygmy heads and a dinosaur skull, Nicolas Cage rewrote the book on earning millions of dollars and promptly losing it all.

Would the real Joe Exotic be any different if he were a free man today and able to cash in on his newfound fame? I don’t see many investment portfolios in his future!

Tiger King fans will get more bang for their buck

Look at it this way. If the decision-makers had gone with someone like Rob Lowe to play our favorite gun-toting gay redneck, we’d have to make do with an actor trying to be Joe Exotic.

Why would we want that? We’ve all seen the Tiger King, we’ve already seen the best guy for the job play Joe Exotic!

Rob Lowe pretending to be Joe Exotic would have been a terrible letdown.

Nope, this isn’t a role for a method actor. It’s a role for the worst method actor in Hollywood today.

Nicolas Cage can only play one role. That of Nicolas Cage

That’s right, Nicolas Cage doesn’t play characters. His movies consist of Nicolas Cage, the octopus, and shrunken-head buying maniac, falling into predicaments.

Con Air? A movie detailing what would happen if Nicolas Cage ever erroneously killed a drunken man, was sentenced to ten years in jail, and was sent to a supermax prison in a plane full of hardened criminals.

tweet, twitter, 2016
I feel your pain. | Source: Twitter 

Face/Off? An insight into how life would play out for Nicolas Cage if he ever became a freelance terrorist and homicidal sociopath and was subjected to a face transplant.

The point is, Cage plays most of his roles in the same way. He injects the awesomeness that is Nicolas Cage into all of them. He doesn’t do characters.

This show will be Nicolas Cage rebirth to a whole new generation of viewers

For many younger fans, Nicolas Cage is an actor who’s movies fly straight to DVD. How many were old enough to enjoy the Con-Air experience? That was well over 20 years ago now, which is insane.

This Tiger King television show won’t give us a semi-recognizable actor trying to play Joe Exotic better than Joe Exotic himself did in the Netflix series.

That would end in disappointment. No one can play Joe Exotic better than Joe Exotic.

Nicolas cage, tweet
Source: Twitter 

What we’re going to get is a world where Nicolas Cage is a gay, gun-toting redneck who runs for president and owns a bunch of tigers.

A whole new generation will have their eyes opened to the greatness of Nicolas Cage.

Now that is a television experience I can get behind.


Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.