Nicolas Cage Reveals He Considered Retiring Before ‘Spider-Noir’ (Exclusive)

Nicolas Cage is dishing with "Extra's" Mona Kosar Abdi on his dark new superhero series “Spider-Noir."

Cage plays Ben Reilly, a private investigator in the 1930s New York, who is forced after a deeply personal tragedy to grapple with his past life as the city's one and only superhero.

He said, “I wanted to do something fresh and I had this vision in my imagination that, you know, this is one of the first times that my imagination manifested in a way that was exactly as I had hoped. I would take this old style of 1930s, '40s film performance... and mash it up with this enormous '60s and contemporary icon of Stan Lee's masterpiece, Spider-Man, put those two rocks together and get a spark and try to create something new."

"I wasn't sure it was gonna work until I saw all eight episodes," he admitted. "The whole time it was daunting."

The series is available in both black-and-white and color versions.

“I designed my performance to fit in the black-and-white format. I wanted to transport you to an old-world 1930s style of acting, specifically noir acting,” Cage noted. 

Cage noted his character Ben Reilly is very different from Peter Parker.

"He's older, he's out of shape, he's breathing heavy when he climbs stairs," Nic said. "Spider-Man's a fresh-faced teenager that's full of vim and vigor, and this guy is guilt-ridden, he's parked the whole superhero thing. He doesn't want to have anything to do with it."

Nic continued, "The other thing I wanted to explore was the actual arachnid DNA. What would that do to someone’s physiology and their psychology? Well, you know, why don't we play a little with that? Let’s see if it would change the way he moves or the way he thinks.”

This is Cage’s first television series, and he reflected on why he wanted to do it.

He admitted, “The older you get, the harder it is to stay interested.”

Cage still sees himself as a student, saying, “What can I do to learn? Where can I go next? I got to a point after ‘Dream Scenario’ where I was just like, you know, I think I’ve said everything I’ve had to say with cinema. I don’t know what else to do."

He added, “I have great respect for any actor that carries a season of television. It’s harder than movies because it’s a different dynamic. It’s a different process.”

Did Nic ever consider retirement? 

He answered, “I was thinking along those lines after ‘Dream Scenario’ because I didn’t know what else I could do with cinema. Then I did think, okay, maybe I’ll keep acting, because I have to, out of necessity, which you know, necessity is the mother of invention. I thought, all right, let’s try something else. So it's, what's next? Television. What's next? Maybe stage."

Asked if he would do Broadway, Nic answered, “You never say never. Maybe. I’m open.” 

He emphasized, "I'm just trying to learn more and more, and I felt after I finished the series of 'Spider-Noir,' it did empower me. I felt like, 'Wow, I actually did it. I got through a season of television.' It's not easy. You have different directors. It's almost like a factory dynamic and you've gotta fit in that and you've gotta make it work and still be amusing and entertaining."