By Sandra Birungi

Nicolas Cage appeared on the Today show hosted by Savannah Guthrie on Monday for the first time in seven years and revealed that he is not living a lavish life which landed him in a financial hiccup with IRS back in 2010.

During the show, Cage revealed that he lives with his wife and child as a normal person, nothing more. “I have a simple life, and I’m a lot lighter because of it. I get up in the morning, I drive my kid to school, I go home, I work out, I take my wife to lunch, I pick my kid up from school, and that’s it.”

Cage also talked about turning down the role of Shrek and why he does not regret it at all. “That is in fact true. Well, the news said it was because of vanity. I think that’s a bit strong. But the truth is, I’m not afraid to be ugly in a movie…. When you’re drawn, in a way it says more about how children are going to see you than anything else, and I so care about that,” he answered when asked if he had turned it down because he was going to be ugly in the movie.

“I want kids to look at Grug (and think) ‘well, he’s a little scary, but he’s a big teddy bear. And I wasn’t sure I could do that with Shrek.”