Nicolas Cage on Brief Surprise ‘The Flash’ Cameo: “Glad I Didn’t Blink”

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for The Flash.]

Nicolas Cage is sharing his thoughts on his surprise cameo as Superman in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash.

During an interview with USA Today, published online Thursday, the Oscar-winning actor said it was fulfilling to finally see the character come to life decades after the 1998 film Superman Lives was scrapped.

“Well, I was glad I didn’t blink,” he quipped. “For me, it was the feeling of being actualized. Even that look for that particular character, finally seeing it on screen, was satisfying. But as I said, it’s quick.”

In The Flash, Cage appears during a scene when Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen opens the multiverse to see the different universes. That’s when Barry sees Cage as Superman fighting a giant spider as well as Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Helen Slater’s Supergirl, Adam West’s Batman and George Reeve’s Superman.

Warner Bros. ended up calling off the infamous 1998 movie just weeks before filming was set to begin, citing creative differences.

For those who still wonder what Cage had in store for his character if the movie was actually completed, he suggested looking at his “performance in City of Angels.”

“I was supposed [to play] Clark Kent after that [in Superman Lives], and I was already developing this alien otherness playing this angel,” he told the outlet. “That is a perfect example of the tonality you would’ve gotten for Kal-El and for Clark Kent: Clark would’ve been a little more amusing but Kal-El [had] the sensitivity and the goodness and the vulnerability and all those feelings that were kind of angelic and also terrifying.”

Last month, filmmaker Kevin Smith, who initially penned several draft screenplays for the scrapped Superman Lives movie, reacted to seeing his vision of Cage as Superman in Muschietti’s film.

“I finally got to see Nic Cage be Superman,” Smith told Rolling Stone. “It has been an absolute delight for me.” He added that it was “mind-melting” after seeing the scene.