Oscar-winning star Nicolas Cage gets real about childhood fears

Nicolas Cage, Oscar-winning actor known for his wild roles in films like National Treasure and Leaving Las Vegas, has recently opened up about an unexpected childhood fear.

The 61-year-old star said that the film takes him right back to his childhood days in California.

Remembering his weekends at Santa Monica Pier, Nicolas shared with 'Extra': "I was quite young, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get past the group that was surfing, or, you know, the line, if you will. It was quite intimidating.

"I had a lot of admiration for surfers and for what they do, but I also feared them as a young man because they were pretty jacked up, both mentally and physically."

In the new movie, Nicolas plays a dad who returns to his old childhood beach to surf with his son, but things quickly spiral as tension at the beach pushes him to the edge.

The actor added: "It's a human condition, it's a human story to think that you can repair things if you just work hard enough and buy back that house or it'll fix my marriage or it'll repair my relationship with my son ... and that desire to belong, to belong to something, to belong to anything."

However, Nicolas previously said that he approaches acting like a student, always eager to learn and grow with each new role.