US actor Nicolas Cage has credited fellow actor Richard Gere with saving him from a life behind bars.
Cage admits he was a hellraiser in his youth and often trashed hotel rooms and insulted his co-workers on set.
He says he would have ended up in jail if he hadn'tchannelled his anger into acting.
Cage is adamant his life was turned around after a heart-to-heart conversation with Gere when they worked together on 1984 movie The Cotton Club.
"I wish I had not been so angry at 18. I was a pretty wild guy with a lot of energy. I was into punk rock and didn't know where I was fitting in," he's told Britain's The Sun newspaper.
"I wanted that energy to go somewhere. I wanted it to be constructive rather than destructive, but I just did not have a clue in which direction to take it. Finding a career in which I could express those feelings was lucky. It could have gone either way. I could have ended up in jail," Cage said.
Gere told his co-star that he would only have three films left in him if he kept on behaving the way he was, Cage said.
"I was so gung-ho (reckless). I was ripping up my trailer, trashing my hotel room, walking on set and insulting everyone.
