Nicolas Cage never broke character as Dracula on the set of his new movie "Renfield," film director Chris McKay said.
The new movie, set for release April 14, follows Dracula's longtime assistant Nicholas Hoult as he helps the vampire navigate modern-day life in New Orleans. While promoting the film in an interview with Insider, McKay said Cage would stay in character even when the cameras had stopped rolling.
"Whatever scene we did he would still be 100% living in that attitude after we stopped shooting," McKay said. "So if he's a little frosty in the scene he's going to have a little bit of that between takes. But still up for whatever we were doing."
McKay added that there were times when he needed to have a "real conversation" about the film with Cage, but Cage still stayed in the character of Dracula.
"But you also have to remember, he's covered head to toe in Dracula makeup and costume, so it's a different thing," McKay said. "Sometimes he couldn't even bend his body very much because he's got a whole body appliance on. So he's Dracula whether he wants to be Dracula or not."
Cage also talked about his experience on the set of "Renfield," saying he inadvertently drank his own blood.
"No reason in terms of method, but the fangs were genuine fangs, they were ceramic and quite pointy. So I did bite my lip a few times which made me drink my own blood," Cage said, according to the Daily Mail.
Cage said that to craft the character's voice with the fangs, he kept them in as often as possible.
"I was trying to give the character an eloquent and elegant voice that was pretty hard to do with all the ceramic material in my mouth," he said. "But I got used to it by taking them home, leaving them in when I was in my hotel room."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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