Reading this, I was reminded of how Nicolas Cage is part of the Coppola family but changed his name, I was told, so that he could “make it on his own.”
I looked that up and it turns out to be a complete lie. He actually changed his name to conceal the fact that he was not making it on his own.
From Wikipedia:
At age 15, he tried to convince his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, to give him a screen test, telling him “I’ll show you acting.” His outburst was met with “silence in the car.”[20] By this stage of his career, Coppola had already directed Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro. Although early in his career Cage appeared in some of his uncle’s films, he changed his name to Nicolas Cage to avoid the appearance of nepotism as Coppola’s nephew. His choice of name was inspired by the Marvel Comicssuperhero Luke Cage and composer John Cage.[21][22]
He was given roles in his uncles film because he was his nephew. The name change just swept this under the rug. He wanted to get the roles but not let anyone know he got them through favoritism.
Nicholas Coppola got cast by his uncle, when any random 15 year old aspiring actor would never stand a chance.
He then changes his name so that other people in Hollywood will (hopefully) not say “oh he got that part because he’s Coppola’s nephew,” even if he absolutely got that job because he’s Coppola’s nephew.
I’m not disputing that he got his first few roles due to his connections, but changing his name absolutely would have distanced him from his relatives in other directors’ eyes.
You have misunderstood. He was in fact the beneficiary of nepotism: starting in his uncle’s films. But to keep this a secret, he changed his name. He was hiding the nepotism, not trying to avoid nepotism.
Walk a little more softly. You came off as confidently wrong there.
Reading this, I was reminded of how Nicolas Cage is part of the Coppola family but changed his name, I was told, so that he could “make it on his own.”
I looked that up and it turns out to be a complete lie. He actually changed his name to conceal the fact that he was not making it on his own.
From Wikipedia:
But his latter movies are awesome and I love him, so I’ll let it slide.
Yeah I like him too. The only asterisk on that is that I guess I might like some other actor better who didn’t have a family “in”
how does changing his famous last name conceal that he was not making it on his own? what?
He was given roles in his uncles film because he was his nephew. The name change just swept this under the rug. He wanted to get the roles but not let anyone know he got them through favoritism.
this comment makes sense, but your original comment said something else that was genuinely confusing.
“To avoid the appearance of nepotism” sounds exactly like making it his own. You seem to have misunderstood. Are you an LLM?
The appearance of nepotism.
Nicholas Coppola got cast by his uncle, when any random 15 year old aspiring actor would never stand a chance.
He then changes his name so that other people in Hollywood will (hopefully) not say “oh he got that part because he’s Coppola’s nephew,” even if he absolutely got that job because he’s Coppola’s nephew.
I’m not disputing that he got his first few roles due to his connections, but changing his name absolutely would have distanced him from his relatives in other directors’ eyes.
Nah, everyone in the industry would know about this. But random people on the street wouldn’t. And that’s what it’s about when you want to be famous.
No it wouldn’t/didn’t, but it would/did to the masses.
You have misunderstood. He was in fact the beneficiary of nepotism: starting in his uncle’s films. But to keep this a secret, he changed his name. He was hiding the nepotism, not trying to avoid nepotism.
Walk a little more softly. You came off as confidently wrong there.