Nicolas Cage's longtime agent says people don't realize how funny he is: 'Once a day we get going, and we're just cracking up'

• Nicolas Cage is actually really funny, according to his longtime agent and friend.
• Michael Nilon praised Cage as "the coolest" and said they crack each other up all the time.
• Nilon wrote the script for "Arcadian," the new action horror movie Cage stars in.

Nicolas Cage has been in the public eye for decades now. But there are some things about him even his biggest fans probably don't realize, according to his longtime manager.

On the red carpet for the premiere of Cage's new film "Arcadian" at the SXSW Film & TV Festival, Michael Nilon, the actor's agent and producing partner through their company Saturn Films, spoke to Business Insider about their yearslong friendship. Nilon, who wrote the script for "Arcadian," praised Cage as "an awesome dude" — but on top of that, he said, he's just really damn funny.

"We take business very seriously — obviously, his career has been many decades, he's had one of the most brilliant, greatest careers ever," Nilon told BI. "But on a human level, just day to day, we really have a good time."

"People don't realize that he's not just so cool, but really clever and funny," he added.

According to Nilon, who's a credited producer on several of Cage's films including "Rage," "Willy's Wonderland," and "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," his friendship with Cage is characterized by their frequent riffing off of each other.

"We have similar senses of humor. Like once a day we get going, and we're just cracking up," he said. "It's really a blessing."

In "Arcadian," Cage stars as a father who's struggling to keep his twin sons alive in a postapocalyptic world filled with deadly monsters. Nilon said during the Q&A after the film's premiere that he was inspired by his own twin sons to write the movie during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Speaking to BI separately on the red carpet, Cage explained why he's drawn to the horror genre.

"I grew up watching Hammer horror films. I also grew up watching the old German expressionists, and I grew up watching Lon Chaney," Cage said. "I'm kind of a natural-born surrealist of sorts — I gravitate toward surreal paintings, surreal music, and surreal avant-garde performance art."

"If you go into the horror genre — not in 'Arcadian' so much, but 'Longlegs' you'll see — you can be a surrealistic performance artist," he added, referencing his other upcoming Neon horror film out in July.

"Arcadian" is in theaters April 12.