Nicolas Cage once went on Holy Grail quest

Nicolas Cage has revealed that he once went on a real treasure hunt for Holy Grail as he became interested in the mythology surrounding it.

In a story straight out of his "National Treasure" films, where he portrayed the obsessive treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates, Cage told The New York Times that he went on a "grail quest", which took him to many places -- from Glastonbury to Rhode Island.

"I almost went on you might call it a grail quest. 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. On top of which, I said, 'I'm going to get off philosophy,' because I became like a kite with a string but no anchor.

"No one could understand what I was talking about. And I thought people would rather see me as an orangutan than as an eagle meditating on the mountaintop anyway," the 55-year-old actor said.

Cage further said that as things progressed, he started piecing together the references about the Holy Grail in the books he read.

"For me it was all about where was the grail? Was it here? Was it there? Is it at Glastonbury? Does it exist? If you go to Glastonbury and go to the Chalice Well, there's a spring that does taste like blood. I guess it's really because there's a lot of iron in the water.

"But legend had it that in that place was a grail chalice, or two cruets rather, one of blood and one of sweat. But that led to there being talk that people had come to Rhode Island, and they were looking for something as well," he explained.

Cage said his quest ended with the realisation -- "What is the Grail but Earth itself?".