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.
EDIT to clarify if this was confusing: he was given roles by his uncle Francis Ford Coppola. This is nepotism aka “not making it on his own,” but with special help from family. To conceal the nepotism, his name was changed.
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]
I miss when actors used to be some random boxer a director met in a Cuban bar or the drunk tank, instead of the executive producer’s nibling or some fucking baronet.
True lol, it’s never not been, it’s hardwired into humans, but it was nice when certain industries were new and there wasn’t so much buildup for the enthrenchment
Yes I think when an industry is new is about the only time that existing power structures don’t dominate, albeit briefly. I saw this up close with the advent of the WWW. In the early days, coding HTML was like working magic, and there were no established players who had a lock on how to do it better than what any enterprising young person could teach themselves through tinkering.
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.
I guess it could be interpreted ways other than I intended, but since I know how it was intended, it’s kind of hard for my brain to successfully see how.
somehow it seemed like you were saying that he was trying to hide that he was failing at making it on his own, which is confusing in a couple directions. anwyay sorry for taking up your time. i meant well and wish you the best. :)
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: staring 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.
EDIT to clarify if this was confusing: he was given roles by his uncle Francis Ford Coppola. This is nepotism aka “not making it on his own,” but with special help from family. To conceal the nepotism, his name was changed.
From Wikipedia:
I miss when actors used to be some random boxer a director met in a Cuban bar or the drunk tank, instead of the executive producer’s nibling or some fucking baronet.
I mean nepotism is hardly a new problem :)
True lol, it’s never not been, it’s hardwired into humans, but it was nice when certain industries were new and there wasn’t so much buildup for the enthrenchment
Yes I think when an industry is new is about the only time that existing power structures don’t dominate, albeit briefly. I saw this up close with the advent of the WWW. In the early days, coding HTML was like working magic, and there were no established players who had a lock on how to do it better than what any enterprising young person could teach themselves through tinkering.
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.
I guess it could be interpreted ways other than I intended, but since I know how it was intended, it’s kind of hard for my brain to successfully see how.
somehow it seemed like you were saying that he was trying to hide that he was failing at making it on his own, which is confusing in a couple directions. anwyay sorry for taking up your time. i meant well and wish you the best. :)
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”
“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: staring 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.
ive seen quite a few actors recently try to do this or trying to downplay thier nepotism.