Von Miller is not sold on Nicolas Cage as John Madden, even after a new clip from the Madden movie put the performance back in view. On Tuesday, October 27, the Prime Movies X account shared footage that drops viewers into the broadcast booth, with Cage’s Madden beside Pat Summerall, played by Joel Murray.
Miller took that clip to his own show, Free Range w/ Von Miller, and said the problem was not the acting. It was the voice. “No. No, man. Like, if you didn’t know Madden, if you didn’t know what was going on, like, his voice is totally different,” he said. He added that Cage is “a great actor,” but still said, “He didn’t get Madden’s voice right. Nah, that was Nicolas Cage voice.”
That distinction matters because the clip is meant to sell a portrait of one of football’s most familiar figures, a late Hall of Fame coach whose sideline and broadcast life defined him for generations. In the scene, Cage’s Madden and Summerall handle color commentary the way the real duo did on countless game days, which is exactly why the voice stands out so sharply when it misses.
Miller’s criticism is also part of a broader backlash building around the project. Robbie Harvey called the clip, “This is an embarrassment to his legacy,” a sharper judgment than Miller’s but aimed at the same point: the film can get the look and the rhythm right and still miss what people remember most. Miller said as much himself, praising the acting while arguing the voice was off.
He also made clear why that gap matters to him. “It’s already shot and done with already, but if you really saw what John Madden did and what he meant to football as I did, he didn’t get the voice right,” Miller said. “The acting, he did get that right, though. But what could you do? Like that’s, that’s the best you can do, and Nicolas Cage is a great actor, so we just gotta ride with it.” The movie is finished, but the debate around whether it captures Madden’s presence is not.
