Moonstruck effect: Nicolas Cage used to get slapped by fans at airport

Actor Nicolas Cage has recalled the bizarre trend inspired by 1987 romantic comedy 'Moonstruck', which he starred in with 'Believe' hitmaker Cher.

Speaking to 'Entertainment Tonight', he said: "For the longest time, back from 'Moonstruck', I would walk to the airport and people just had a habit of saying, 'Snap out of it!' from Moonstruck - the Cher 'snap out of it' (line) - and I did get slapped a few times."

He added: "Oh yeah, I did! And that, you know, it's part of the job."

When it comes to why fans felt compelled to act in such a way, Cage joked they might have been aiming for a role.

He said: "I think maybe (they think) I'll cast them in something. Who knows?"

The actor said he almost turned down the movie but agreed to take the role in a deal with his agent because he actually wanted to make 1989 horror comedy 'Vampire's Kiss'.

He previously told USA Today: "I made that movie on a deal with my then-agent Ed Limato. I was desperately trying to get him to say yes to me doing 'Vampire's Kiss'.

"He said: 'No, you're not going to wear those stupid plastic things. I want you to look handsome! Do Moonstruck!'

"And I said, 'I don't want to do Moonstruck!' I wanted to be punk rock - I didn't want to do a schmaltzy movie about opera. But I said, 'If I do Moonstruck, will you let me do Vampire's Kiss?' And he said OK.

"The truth is, I love 'Moonstruck'. Now that I'm older, I see the value in [it]. I haven't seen 'Moonstruck' in a million years, but I think it's powerfully romantic and I love all the performances."

Meanwhile, his enduring memory of the movie was him and Cher being "freezing in Brooklyn in the winter at night".

He added: "It was that whole big diatribe about, 'The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves.'

"That was my favourite bit of writing by (screenwriter) John Patrick Shanley, this powerful soliloquy. That being said, our mouths were frozen and it was so hard to move. It's very hard to act when you're freezing."

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