Nicholas Cage and the Holy Grail

If you ever watched the movie National Treasure and found Nicholas Cage so believable as a historical treasure hunter that you thought he might have done it in real life, it turns out you were right. According to this article from Salon, the actor explained in an interview that he did in fact run around the world at one point hunting for the Holy Grail. And apparently, there wasn't even a single coconut involved.

“That was the time when I almost went on — you might call it a grail quest,” Cage said. “I started following mythology, and I was finding properties that aligned with that. It was almost like ‘National Treasure.’ Of course, that didn’t sustain.”

Cage continued by saying he became obsessed with figuring out the Holy Grail’s location. Asked by Marchese to clarify his “quest,” Cage explained, “You read a book, and in it there’s a reference to another book, and then you buy that book, and then you attach the references. For me it was all about where was the grail? Was it here? Was it there? Is it at Glastonbury? Does it exist?”

The research led Cage to the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, where “legend had it that in that place was a grail chalice, or two cruets rather, one of blood and one of sweat.” Cage said the water tasted like blood, just as the story of Joseph of Arimathea says. Legend has it that Joseph hid the Holy Grail in the Chalice Well and thus the water would taste of Christ’s blood. Cage added, “I guess it’s really because there’s a lot of iron in the water.”

Cage’s trip to Glastonbury sparked buzz that his quest for the Holy Grail would have to go to Rhode Island, where the actor ended up buying property. “I don’t know if I’m going to say that’s why I bought the Rhode Island property. But I will say that is why I went to Rhode Island, and I happened to find the place beautiful,” he said. “But yes, this had put me on a search around different areas, mostly in England, but also some places in the States. What I ultimately found is: What is the Grail but Earth itself?”

So the Holy Grail is in Rhode Island? The Mormons must be thrilled. Yeah, I know he didn't actually say that in the interview, but he's a famous Hollywood actor with tons of money and the ability to travel pretty much anywhere, and Rhode Island is where he stopped looking. In true conspiracy-theory fashion, I'll ask the question - do you think that him stopping there was a coincidence? He also bought a piece of property. Is that where the Grail resides today?

More seriously, though, I do find it kind of interesting that the whole tale sounds just like a Hollywood film. Famous actor embarks on a quest to travel the world in search of the Grail, but at the end of the movie he concludes that really, the Grail is everywhere because it's the Earth itself. That's almost a script treatment right there.