Nicolas Cage claims he was given cocaine by doctors

Nicolas Cage has claimed he was given cocaine by Australian doctors to clear his sinuses.

The American actor made the admission while promoting his new movie Bad Lieutenant. In it, he plays a police detective from New Orleans who has a substance abuse problem. Nicolas was Down Under when he first received the script, and admits he was shocked at the unusual medical treatment he received.

He explained: "The strangest thing of all is that in Australia, they still use cocaine to clear your sinuses and it's a true story - I had a massive sinus infection and I was trying to understand or recall something from a hundred years in my past and I couldn't get it - and they sent me to the doctor who did this cocaine solution thing and put it in my nose."

Nicolas added he initially thought the treatment must be a special version of the illegal drug, but was amazed by some of the side-effects he experienced.

"I came out and just started taking notes and I noticed my mouth was getting really dry and I was feeling very invincible and I started improvising the scenes and coming up with ideas and I was swallowing a lot so then I was graphing it in the script," he explained.

"This is coke so this is what he's doing here, there's going to be a lot of swallowing, a lot of lip smacking."

Eva Mendes, Nicolas' co-star who was also promoting the movie, queried: "Do you still have the name of that doctor?"