Nicolas Cage became Dracula while filming Renfield – even when the camera’s were turned off.
The film’s director Chris McKay said that the Mandy actor was “living” in character between takes while shooting the upcoming horror comedy. In fact, Cage’s method acting approach to the character was so extreme that McKay said it was like talking to the vampire himself.
Speaking to Insider, McKay said: “Whatever scene we did, he would still be 100% living in that attitude after we stopped shooting. 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.”
Cage is just one of a number of box office giants to use the method acting approach, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Depp amongst other notable current method actors. Speaking of his experience with the Stanislavski-derived acting technique, Mckay said Cage wouldn’t even drop his facade during “real conversations” between them.
The Lego Batman Movie director explained that if he and Cage needed to have a talk about the film it would be McKay and Dracula speaking. The filmmaker said:
“You also have to remember, he’s covered head to toe in Dracula makeup and costume, so it’s a different thing. 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, a renowned pop-culture vulture, recently and unequivocally ruled out a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cage a notorious comic book fan was once lined-up to play Superman in a scrapped Tim Burton film.
Asked earlier this month if he would want to appear in the MCU, Cage replied: “I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.”