Nicolas Cage Claims He Convinced Johnny Depp to Become an Actor: ‘He Wanted to Be a Musician’

The two actors have known each other for decades and used to get together to play Monopoly.

Johnny Depp borra en su cuerpo el rastro de Amber Heard | Estilo | EL PAÍS

Looks like fans have Nicolas Cage to thank for Johnny Depp‘s acting career.

In a new interview with The New York Times Magazine, Cage claimed he encouraged Depp to consider acting while the eventual Pirates of the Caribbean star was renting his apartment in the ’80s.

“We were good friends, and we would play Monopoly, and he was winning a game, and I was watching him and I said, ‘Why don’t you just try acting?’ ” Cage recalled in the interview.

I think you can act”: Nicolas Cage Called Johnny Depp an “Overnight Sensation” After Helping Actor Land His Debut in $54M Classic

“He wanted to be a musician at the time, and he told me, ‘No, I can’t act.’.

I said, ‘I think you can act.’.

So I sent him to meet with my agent.

She sent him out on his first audition, which was A Nightmare on Elm Street.

He got the part that day. Overnight sensations don’t happen. But it happened with him.”.

Depp booked the role of Glen Lantz in the 1984 horror sensation and went on to star in the TV show 21 Jump Street three years later, making him Hollywood’s newest heartthrob.

A career full of memorable movie roles later followed.

Nicolas Cage &Johnny Depp

Cage also opened up about his recent difficult split from his 4-day bride Erika Koike in the interview, where he revealed that he was hurt by the way things played out in their whirlwind romance.

“There was a recent breakup,” Cage mentioned in the interview.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.

I was pretty upset about that and the way things happened.”.

Nicolas Cage takes the credit for talking Johnny Depp into focusing on acting over music | Daily Mail Online

Cage was granted a divorce from Koike in May, two months after the couple said “I do” in Las Vegas, according to Clark County Nevada online records.

The actor had submitted an application for annulment in late March, just four days after tying the knot with Koike, a makeup artist, in Las Vegas, per court documents obtained by PEOPLE at the time.

In court documents obtained by The Blast for the annulment, Cage claimed that they were both intoxicated at the time of the elopement and he “lacked understanding of his actions in marrying [Koike] to the extent that he was incapable of agreeing to the marriage.”