[1] In 1983, Cage starred in the teen romantic comedy Valley Girl alongside Deborah Foreman and had a supporting role in his uncle Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish.
In 1984, Cage portrayed a fictionalized version of hitman Mad Dog Coll in Coppola's The Cotton Club and appeared in Birdy, a feature the National Board of Review listed among the top ten films of that year.
[4][7] In 2002, he made his directorial debut with Sonny and portrayed filmmaker Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation, another critically acclaimed film that earned him his most recent Best Actor nominations from the Academy Awards,[7] BAFTA,[8] and Golden Globes.
[9] In the 2010s, Cage found himself "taking roles left and right" after a series of box-office disappointments and to pay off his debts to the IRS, placing him in numerous films, many going direct-to-video.
Recent films of his that earned critical acclaim include Mandy (2018), Color Out of Space (2019), Pig (2021), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), Dream Scenario (2023), and Longlegs (2024).