Nicolas Cage once applied to be a contestant on a dating show.

The 'Joe' actor - who has sons Weston, 23, with ex-girlfriend Christina Fulton and Kal-El, eight, with third wife Alice Kim - was obsessed with 'The Dating Game' as a teenager, and managed to get accepted for the show, despite being only 15 years old, but his father refused to let him take part.

He said: ''My first audition I was underage. Only 15. Even that young I tried to be accepted on 'The Dating Game.'

''I used to love seeing that, and always somehow managed to, although my father said I couldn't watch it. Anyhow, he wouldn't let me do the show.''

The 50-year-old star - who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1996 for his role in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' - also insisted he has a very ''normal'' home life with Alice and Kal-El and is very focused on the future, rather than reliving his former glories.

Speaking to the New York Post newspaper, he said:

''I'm a regular at- home dad to him -- not some movie star. I play with him, go out with him, do all those parent-child things like any other father.

''I don't play my old movies. Don't look to make him see them. Don't talk about those old days. I intend to maintain a normal, natural home life. I try to look at the future, not the past.

''The same with my Oscar. I'm living today. I'm a parent. I keep the totems away. My awards are safe. But they're not in my home. The totems are in the past.''