Why Nicolas Cage Capped His John Madden Weight Gain at 25 Pounds

At the Los Angeles premiere of “Madden” on November 4, Cage said pasta and sourdough bread—foods he does not usually eat—helped him put on the weight. He described his usual routine as “Two Premier Protein shakes and one meal a day,” typically a Caesar salad.

Cage told PEOPLE he would not gain 60 pounds for the role, calling that “dangerous.” He said prosthetics supplied “the other 30,” with makeup artist Adrien Morot helping complete the transformation. Cage called the result “a hybrid approach” and “the sweet spot.” Morot previously worked with Brendan Fraser on his transformation for “The Whale.”

Christian Bale, who shared a trailer with Cage during filming, said he watched his costar “gradually disappear into John Madden” as they got ready each morning. Bale praised Cage’s respect for Madden and said he approached the role “very, very seriously.”

Cage has changed his physique for roles before. In a 1995 interview, he described bulking up to play Little Junior with protein shakes, including Metarax, and extensive weightlifting. But he has also regretted an extreme on-screen choice: for “Vampire’s Kiss” (1988), he pushed to eat a real cockroach rather than the raw egg in the script. “I’ll never do that again,” he later told Yahoo Entertainment.