A few weeks ago, Nicolas Cage collected a prize for “Best Global Actor In Motion Pictures” at the Huading Awards in Macau. “I believe in the genius loci of a place, the genie of the place is what I call it,” he said at the time. “Making a movie in China, I’m buzzing with good energy, I feel great here. I love the people I’m working with, I love the crew, and there’s a genuine warmth and enthusiasm that I get from my conversations.” In a recent interview, he combined more praise for the country’s film industry with displeased words regarding Hollywood’s lack of roles for male Asian actors.

Cage had just wrapped shooting on the U.S.-Chinese-Australian co-production Outcast when he sat down with the state-operated CCTV network. “I do want to come back, and I want to work with a Chinese director and Chinese actors,” he said, singling out Tony Leung as a performer he particularly admired. “If there’s something that makes sense for a white guy like me, I’d like to do that here in China.” He also expressed a desire “to have a base near mainland China,” possibly in Hong Kong.

When it came time to discuss Hollywood’s casting practices, Cage launched into his criticism. “We do see Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Chow Yun Fat, but it’s very rare to see the Chinese male actor in Hollywood movies, which is something I take great umbrage with,” he said. “You know, my son is Asian.” (Cage has a son, Kal-El, with his Korean-American wife.) “He may want to direct one day; he may want to be an actor like his father, and I want that to be open to him. So I want to make some kind of effort to see more of that happen in Hollywood.”