Nicolas Cage says he legally changed his name to align with his stage name in an effort to forge his own identity and lineage.The 62-year-old actor, born Nicolas Kim Coppola, is the nephew of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Cage’s late father, August, was the brother of Coppola and Rocky star Talia Shire. While the National Treasure actor has long gone by Nicolas Cage professionally — after dropping his family name at the beginning of his career to avoid being judged on anything other than his own merits — he has now made the change legal.“I am Nick Cage. I changed my name legally last year,” the Ghost Rider actor told Variety. “I’m Nick Cage in life, and I’m Nick Cage on camera. ‘Tis better to be the patriarch of my own little family than the clown cousin on the margins of someone else’s,” he quipped. “So I decided I’m going to bring it on and be ‘Cage.’”Nicolas Cage (left) is the nephew of legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola (right) (Getty)Cage is the father of three children — sons Weston, 35, and Kal-El, 20, and daughter August, 3 — all with different mothers. He has been married to his daughter’s mother, Riko Shibata, 31, since 2021. The Longlegs actor said “Cage” was inspired by the gritty comic book superhero Luke Cage and famed composer John Cage.“‘Cage’ is a name that I liked coming across in the comics — I just thought he had a cool name — and I grew up in a very avant-garde, artsy family and there was talk about John Cage and the experimental compositions that he did,” he added. He explained that he was looking for “something short and sweet” like James Dean, adding that he decided to keep his first name because “my father named me Nicolas — with French spelling, which has always frustrated me, because everyone adds an ‘h.’ I don’t know why he gave me the French spelling! But he did.”Cage plays the lead role in the new Spider-Man series, ‘Spider-Noir’ (Prime Video)Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.As a teenager, Cage was sent to live with Coppola and the director’s late wife, Eleanor, for a year in Napa Valley, California, after his parents divorced. In a 1994 interview with The New York Times, the Oscar-winning Leaving Las Vegas actor recalled that once he moved in with his aunt and uncle, he was “put into this little country school.”“I went suddenly from being the cool guy to the geek. My grades went from straight A’s to straight F’s,” he said. “I was in this wonderful house with wonderfully generous people, but it wasn’t my stuff, it wasn’t my house. I didn’t know why I was there. I was frustrated beyond belief, man.” Cage said his perspective eventually shifted. “It was like a golden key was given to me,” he continued. “Because I said, ‘You know what? I am going to get back. I am going to get even somehow.’”He remembered he made it his mission to “buy a big house in San Francisco,” where his parents used to live. “And I did,” he said. “It’s just sort of unfortunate that it was revenge that fueled much of my ambition.”Cage rose to fame as the soulful punk rocker Randy in the 1983 coming-of-age comedy Valley Girl. He currently stars in the eight-episode superhero series Spider-Noir, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.