Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage dreamt of getting "inside" his television as a child.

The 49-year-old actor would spend hours watching TV when he was a boy and he always wondered how he would be able to get on to the screen when he grew up.

Cage insists becoming an actor was his only ambition and he can't remember ever wanting to do anything else.

Speaking about his childhood, he said: "I would watch television religiously; that's all I did. That is what I enjoyed. At that age I was trying to figure out how I go from the living room carpet - because I would sit on the carpet and watch the TV, it was my magic carpet - and get inside the television and talk. Now I'm doing it, so it worked. That was always the plan - to try get in the TV and become an actor."

Cage - who is currently starring in Scott Walker's 'The Frozen Ground' alongside John Cusack and Vanessa Hudgens - admits he enjoys working as much as he can.

However, he took the whole of 2012 off and he thinks the extended break was good for both his personal life and his career.

During an appearance on UK TV show 'This Morning', he said: "Last year I took the entire year off. I did one movie in the beginning and I took the rest of the year off ... Now I have to find a script I connect to, believe in, and can portray in an honest way. That's increasingly important."