Nicolas Cage Denies Accusations Of Oddball Behavior On Set
Nicolas Cage claims he wasn't method acting as Dracula while filming Renfield, refuting the movie's director.
Nicolas Cage, who has been accused of acting like Dracula during the entire duration of filming Renfield, has risen from his coffin to dispute these claims. Cage, a national treasure (and star of National Treasure), claims that his over-the-top onscreen behavior did not translate into over-the-top offscreen behavior. In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, Cage made it clear that, when off the set, he would do the kind of things that regular, normal human beings do, like laugh in non-maniacal ways and, presumably, not feast upon the blood of the innocent.
This claim directly contradicts director Chris McKay, who previously told Insider that Nicolas Cage would keep acting like the iconic Transylvanian count between takes. Cage guessed that McCay thought that he was acting like Dracula because the fake fangs “made me speak a certain way.” Generally, fake fangs don’t force people to talk in an exaggerated eastern European accent, but we don’t know how these specific prosthetics work.
If Nicolas Cage is misremembering, and he actually did fully embrace his role as the immortal Lord of Darkness in between takes, it wouldn’t be the first time he couldn’t shake off a role behind the scenes. The Goldbergs actress Wendi McLendon-Covey has previously claimed that, when acting in the film Army of One, Cage got so involved in his over-the-top role that she doesn’t feel like she’s actually met the actor — just the character that he played.
This also wouldn’t be the first time that Nicolas Cage played a vampire — or at least someone who thinks that they’re a vampire. Despite his character’s repetitive, now-memetic claim that he’s a vampire in the 1989 film Vampire’s Kiss, he’s not actually a vampire. Instead, he’s a crazy person… which is like a vampire, but without the fangs, immortality, or superpowers.
Despite all the news surrounding Nicolas Cage in his role, he’s not actually the star of Renfield. That honor belongs to another Nicholas: Mad Max: Fury Road actor Nicholas Hoult, who plays the titular R. M. Renfield — a character first introduced in the 1897 Bram Stoker novel Dracula. As Dracula’s thrall and faithful servant, Renfield has previously been portrayed as a tragic but ultimately unimportant figure in the wider Dracula mythos.
This comedic film throws the previously-overlooked character into the spotlight, asking the question of what it would mean to be the immortal servant of an evil, undying vampire. The answer, apparently, is that things aren’t that great — with Nicholas Hoult having to find the courage to stand up to Nicolas Cage’s Dracula 90 years after he originally entered into the vampire’s service.
Along with Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult, Renfield will also feature Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi actress Nora “Awkwafina” Lum as Rebecca Quincy, a traffic cop whose love for Renfield inspires him to become something more than the sniveling sidekick of the greatest evil the world has ever known.
For those interested in seeing Nicolas Cage transform himself into Dracula onset (regardless of what happened off-set), Renfield will release in theaters on April 14, 2023.
