Sinkhole Growing Under Nicolas Cage’s Home Triggers Evacuation Orders in Malibu

Massive coastal erosion that left a 30-foot sinkhole in the driveway of actor Nicolas Cage's beachfront Malibu home has prompted the mandatory evacuation of more than two dozen neighboring properties.

On Sept. 6, the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to reports of a gas main break at the 4,000-square-foot mansion on Sea Level Drive that Cage purchased in 2024 for $10.5 million. The property's driveway had collapsed, leaving a massive 900-square-foot sinkhole.

Jonathan Torres, a public information officer with the LACFD, said the collapse likely resulted from coastal erosion. Witnesses at the scene said they could see waves crashing through the hole. Cage was reportedly not at home at the time of the incident.

Sea Level Drive is one of Malibu's most exclusive gated communities, consisting of just 31 homes. Actors Pierce Brosnan, Dustin Hoffman, and Mindy Kaling all own homes in the neighborhood.

Initially, a state of emergency was declared, and the city of Malibu red-tagged seven nearby homes, prohibiting homeowners from accessing the properties. It later red-tagged 24 additional properties in the community, noting that "current road erosion prevents normal ingress and egress to the neighborhood, and would also prevent access or evacuation routes in the event of an emergency."

Gas and water service remain off in the area.

The neighborhood's homeowners association had already begun repairs, which it estimates could take up to five weeks to complete.

Malibu, where the median listing price is $5.4 million, hasn't been immune to environmental disasters in recent years. The area regularly sees road shutdowns due to coastal erosion.

In early 2025, it was one of the areas worst-hit by the Palisades fire, which destroyed more than 10,000 homes and businesses. Redevelopment in the area has been slow, however. Locals say that an archaic permitting process has meant that fewer than a hundred rebuilding permits have been approved in the 20 months since.

The piling environmental disasters have led Brosnan and his wife, Keely Shaye Brosnan, to begin looking elsewhere.

“We’ve been spared by the fires a few times now. But I think it’s time to move. Everything changes; everything falls apart,” Brosnan said in an interview with U.K. news outlet The Times.

“We live by this body of earth’s water on a fault in a ring of earthquakes,” he continued. “That creates a fear."

Brosnan said he and his wife plan to spend more time in her native Hawaii, where they have a cottage and a yurt.

Brosnan may also be anticipating future problems from a Kelvin wave that is set to hit the Southern California coast in October.

A Kelvin wave is a large, slow-moving wave that creates sustained dangerously high sea levels for months at a time and can lead to extreme beach erosion.

Still, the area's outsized wealth means that locals are better equipped than most to handle climate-related calamities.

“One of the great privileges of life in Malibu is the connection to nature,” Janus Cercone of luxury real estate developer Jaman Properties told The Real Deal. “So when the ocean misbehaves, you just chalk it up to the price of paradise and move on with gratitude.”