“The real estate market crashed, and I couldn’t get out in time,” the “Renfield” actor said.

Nicolas Cage at the “Renfield” premiere
Getty Images

Nicolas Cage is standing by even his “crummy” movies that helped combat his staggering debts.

The Oscar-winner revealed on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he was $6 million in debt after the real estate market crashed.

“I was over-invested in real estate. The real estate market crashed, and I couldn’t get out in time,” Cage said. “I paid them all back, but it was about $6 million. I never filed for bankruptcy.”

Cage continued, “It was dark, sure,” but he admitted that continuously working took his mind off things.

“Work was always my guardian angel,” the “Renfield” star said. “It may not have been blue chip, but it was still work. Even if the movie ultimately is crummy, they know I’m not phoning it in, that I care every time.”

Cage previously reflected on his multiple direct-to-video movies during that era, telling GQ in 2022, “When I was doing four movies a year, back to back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all. They didn’t work, all of them.

Some of them were terrific, like ‘Mandy,’ but some of them didn’t work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that. That I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring.”

Cage also looked back at that time on the roles that could have been in shelved sequel projects.

“The phone stopped ringing. It was like, ‘What do you mean we’re not doing “National Treasure 3″? It’s been 14 years. Why not?’ Well, ‘”Sorcerer’s Apprentice” didn’t work, and “Ghost Rider” didn’t really sell tickets.

And “Drive Angry,” that just came and went,’” the “Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” actor said. “I’ve got all these creditors and the IRS and I’m spending $20,000 a month trying to keep my mother out of a mental institution, and I can’t. It was just all happening at once.”

Cage also previously shared details of his debts in a 2019 NYT Magazine cover story.

“I can’t go into specifics or percentages or ratios, but yeah, money is a factor. I’m going to be completely direct about that. There’s no reason not to be,” Cage said at the time. “It’s no secret that mistakes have been made in my past that I’ve had to try to correct.

Financial mistakes happened with the real estate implosion that occurred, in which the lion’s share of everything I had earned was pretty much eradicated. But one thing I wasn’t going to do was file for bankruptcy.”

Sharon Stone recently opened up about losing “half” of her finances due to a botched “banking thing.” Matt Damon and Ben Affleck additionally shared that they blew through their $600,000 paycheck after selling their “Good Will Hunting” script and were “broke in six months” of their first major movie.