“I Just Enjoyed...” : How Nicolas Cage gained 25 pounds for 'Madden'

At the Nov. 4 premiere, Nicolas Cage said he packed on weight for Madden the easy way: by ditching his usual two protein shakes and a Caesar salad for nightly bowls of carbs. Asked how he did it, he told People,

“I just enjoyed my pasta and my sourdough bread.”

The goal was to inhabit legendary coach and broadcaster John Madden’s larger-than-life frame without going to dangerous extremes.

Pasta, then prosthetics

Cage said he considered a full 60-pound gain but decided that was unsafe at 62. Instead, he put on about 25 pounds himself and turned to makeup artist Adrien Morot — who helped craft Brendan Fraser’s transformation in The Whale — to add roughly 30 more through prosthetics. The combo gave him Madden’s silhouette without a total body overhaul.

Shedding it proved tougher. Cage said the weight didn’t fall off and that he’s still logging a couple of hours a day on an elliptical to get back to his baseline. The indulgent dinners are over; the cardio grind is not.

Next up: Parish

While the football biopic heads downfield, Cage has already wrapped another transformation with Parish, a post-apocalyptic thriller from writer-director Adam Sigal. Set three decades after a nuclear catastrophe, Cage plays a loner who seals himself behind fortified walls with highly trained attack dogs — until a woman arrives with an infant and begs for help. Letting them in draws hungry attention from monstrous predators and cannibals. The film ’s warning sums it up: “Some doors should never be opened.”

Production shot near Stillwater, Minnesota, and wrapped in late October, employing local crews along the way. The cast includes:

• Dane DeHaan
• Alexandra Shipp
• Don Worley (announced his involvement)

Sigal has floated a theatrical window in the summer or fall of 2027 , though no date is confirmed.