Nicolas Cage Sets the Record Straight on 'Homeless' Remark After Malibu Sinkhole

Nicolas Cage has never been an actor who shies away from an unguarded moment in public, which is part of what makes him so compelling both on-screen and off. But a candid Halloween remark at LA Comic-Con recently took on a life of its own, prompting the 62-year-old to step back and offer a more careful reading of what he actually meant.

A Quip Gone Sideways

Speaking to the Associated Press at the premiere of Madden — as first reported by Just Jared — Cage walked back a comment he had made on Halloween day while attending a fan convention. During that appearance, he had described himself as "currently a little bit homeless," a phrase that quickly circulated online with implications far graver than he intended. His clarification was characteristically disarming: he was simply riffing with an interviewer who asked what he was doing for Halloween, and his point, stripped of the spontaneous delivery, was that his Malibu home could not host trick-or-treaters this year. "We're content. We're fine. We're not destitute. We're okay," he told the AP, adding that he has had to become far more precise with his language in public settings.

The offhand nature of the original comment is easy enough to understand in context. Cage noted he enjoys Halloween and typically hands out candy to neighborhood children — a tradition that the ongoing damage to his property has temporarily sidelined. Instead, he spent the evening taking his four-year-old daughter, August, trick-or-treating in Santa Monica before settling in to watch Stanley Kubrick's The Shining once she was asleep. For a devoted cinephile, there are worse ways to mark the occasion.

The Sinkhole Situation

The property damage itself is no small matter. Back in September, Cage's $10.5 million Malibu beachfront home suffered severe structural compromise when a combination of coastal erosion and heavy rainfall caused a portion of the land beneath the house to collapse. Where a driveway once existed, a massive sinkhole opened up, swallowing his enclosed garage along with sections of asphalt, concrete, a nearby construction port-a-potty, and pieces of a privacy fence. Seven homes on his street were subsequently marked unsafe, and neighboring residents were evacuated.

Cage has moved into hotel accommodations for the time being, which is what gave his Comic-Con comment its surface-level plausibility. But the actor has been anything but passive about the situation. Within days of the incident, he filed three separate permits, including an emergency building permit authorizing the placement of sandbags along the beach-facing exterior of the home to guard against wave impact and further erosion. The speed and specificity of that response suggest a homeowner very much engaged in saving what he has — not someone in financial distress.

Cage in Context

It is worth noting that Cage has navigated genuinely turbulent financial waters before, which may partly explain why a single unguarded phrase sparked so much speculation. Yet the actor has remained remarkably productive in recent years, moving fluidly between prestige horror like Longlegs and franchise-adjacent work such as his well-received performance in Spider-Noir on Prime Video, a project that earned strong critical notices before the streaming service made the surprising decision to cancel it.

Fans of his earlier blockbuster era, meanwhile, may be interested to know that National Treasure has been quietly dominating Hulu's charts, a reminder of how durably that franchise resonates with audiences. And with director Jon Turteltaub on record saying National Treasure 3 is a real project, there is plenty for Cage's fanbase to look forward to beyond the present moment's domestic disruptions.

For now, Cage is managing an inconvenient displacement with the same unflappable, slightly surreal energy that has defined his public persona for decades — and making sure everyone knows the kids are still his top priority on Halloween.