This story made me look back and wonder what The Wrestler would have been like with Nicolas Cage in the lead, perhaps a bit like the old rumour of Cage being Superman, rubbish.

However the reason that Cage says he resigned from the film, which we heard of way back in November of last year, is because he wasn't going to make the size, not naturally anyway.

Nicolas Cage apparently said of his time in The Wrestler:

“I resigned from the movie because I didn’t think I had enough time to achieve the look of the wrestler who was on steroids, which I would never do.”

He was speaking to Access Hollywood through WENN and IMDB and it seems a pretty straightforward comment. Of course he's a naturally thin framed man, and while it wouldn't be impossible, bulking up to the size to rival the size that Mickey Rourke achieved in the film was something that he would really have struggled to do, especially without steroids.

However it wouldn't have been impossible, just hard work.

What is interesting is that he reveals that the film was struggling to get financing then, and the suggestion is that it didn't help that they wanted Rourke for the role, and that the part was written for him specifically. It seems that financing was easier with the name of Cage behind the part.

What a different film that would have been, although I do believe they could have made it work, the standard acting of Cage and his negative film baggage wouldn't have been such a great thing for the film and The Wrestler would never have touched the awards ceremonies the way it did.

This was about the comeback of Mickey Rourke just like The Wrestler.