Oscar Winner, 62, Reveals Truth Behind ‘Brutal’ Weight Transformation
The actor said he still spends “hours” on a specific exercise machine.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters;Amazon MGM
Nicolas Cage has shared his route to rapidly gaining and losing significant weight for his latest role.
Cage portrays late NFL legend and former Oakland Raiders head coach John Madden in Madden. The film will premiere in select theaters and stream on Prime Video Nov. 18.
On Nov. 4, the 62-year-old actor told People about how he gained 25 pounds to better resemble the football icon.
On left, Nicolas Cage at an event on November 4; on right, the actor in a scene from “Madden.”
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters;Amazon MGM
“I just enjoyed my pasta and my sourdough bread, which I don’t normally do,” Cage said of his physical transformation.
He continued, “I mean, it’s pretty brutal. Two Premier Protein Shakes and one meal a day. It’s usually a Caesar salad. But with that, I got to enjoy the pasta.”
The Oscar winner gained 25 pounds on his own, then relied on makeup effects artist Adrien Morot to complete the transformation.
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“Look, I’m 62, so I’m not going to gain 60 pounds. That’s dangerous,” he said. “But I added the other 30 with [prosthetics].”
Nicolas Cage underwent both weight gain and a prosthetic transformation for his role in “Madden.”
Amazon MGM
Morot previously transformed Brendan Fraser for his Oscar-winning role in the 2022 film The Whale.
“It was the same approach, a hybrid approach,” Cage said. “That was, to me, the sweet spot.”
Brendan Fraser at the 2023 Oscars and in his 2022 film “The Whale.”
Mike Blake/Reuters;A24
But losing the weight after the filming wrapped in 2025 was not as straightforward.
Cage told the outlet the pounds did “not really” come off easily, and he had to increase his exercise routine.
“A lot of days in the gym on the elliptical,” he said. “I still do it. I’m always on the elliptical for a couple of hours a day.”
Nicolas Cage and his wife, Riko Shibata, at a premiere for “Madden” in Culver City, California, on November 4, 2026.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Cage talked with the outlet at the Los Angeles premiere of his new movie.
He showed off his slimmed-down figure while posing on the red carpet with his wife, Riko Shibata, 31.
The pair met in Japan in 2019 and married in Las Vegas in 2021.
Cage also revealed football wasn’t one of his interests, and he knew nothing about Madden before accepting the role.
“I saw in him an opportunity for transformation of sorts because he was so far out of my comfort zone that I thought, ‘Well, this is a risk, and I want to go for it,’” he said.
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