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Nicolas Cage used 'verbal judo' during a break-in

By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY
Updated
I've lived through it. I've actually experienced it. I was living in Orange County. It was two in the morning. There was a man, in front of my bed. My little one, my 2-year-old at the time, was sleeping in the other room. I was in bed with my wife. He was totally naked. He was wearing my leather jacket. He was eating a Fudgesicle. He was staring at me. I got up out of the bed. I put my jeans on and I chased him into the bathroom. I said, 'What are you doing in my house?' I decided somewhere to use verbal judo. I was very commanding iwth my voice and I got him to get out of my house. The cops came and they took him. It was scary.
He robbed my Fudgesicle. In any way, I didn't press charnges because I felt that maybe, he was not quite right. My wife was terrified. He swam in. He swam on to the dock and crept into the house.

After six days covering Toronto, going from perfectly orchestrated celebrity interview to interview, we were ready for a truly unexpected, jarring chat and wanted someone to surprise us. And Nicolas Cage more than delivered.

While sitting down with director Joel Schumacher to promote their home invasion thriller Trespass, Cage recalled an ambush in his own home.

"I've lived through it. I've actually experienced it. I was living in Orange County. It was two in the morning. There was a man, in front of my bed. My little one, my 2-year-old at the time, was sleeping in the other room. I was in bed with my wife," recalled Cage, referring to his spouse Alice and son Kal-el, now 5.

The strange man in his bedroom "was totally naked. He was wearing my leather jacket. He was eating a Fudgesicle. He was staring at me. I got up out of the bed. I put my jeans on and I chased him into the bathroom. I said, 'What are you doing in my house?' I decided somewhere to use verbal judo. I was very commanding with my voice and I got him to get out of my house. The cops came and they took him. It was scary."

Was Cage robbed, wondered Schumacher.

"He robbed my Fudgesicle. In any way, I didn't press charges because I felt that maybe, he was not quite right. My wife was terrified," said Cage. "He swam in. He swam on to the dock and crept into the house."

And there you have it. Fact sometimes is even stranger, and scarier, than fiction.

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