Blame Fang.
After Renfield director Chris McKay said Nicolas Cage Playing on the set side Vampires – Filmmakers tell Insider “No matter what we do, he is 14 After we stopped filming, 100% of people lived with this attitude” – the veteran actor recalled to The Hollywood Reporter his own version of events at the film’s New York premiere.
“I just don’t remember, I don’t know why Chris said that,” Cage said. “I had a lot of laughs in between shoots with Chris McKay and Nick Holt, so maybe that was his experience, maybe it’s because I still have fangs in my mouth and it makes me talk in a certain way , but that’s not my experience”
Either way, the role requires the scope of Cage, who, after a career in iconic roles, enters the new horror-comedy Renfield from Universal, one of the most famous Draculas. Cage stars opposite Nicholas Hoult , who plays Dracula’s tortured sidekick who serves the Earl Seeking a life outside, and said he was drawn to the film’s dual tone.
“With this Dracula, I tried to mix horror and humor in my lines,” he said Tuesday. “That’s how you can be creepy and funny at the same time, that’s the challenge.”
As Cage himself pointed out, “Dracula is a character that has been portrayed many times, and a few times it has been done well.” He said Christopher Lee, Bella Lou Performances by Gossi, Frank Langella and Gary Oldman were a starting point, but it was his father, August Coppola, who shaped him the most.
“He always spoke with distinction, he was always very elegant and eloquent, he was always the smartest person in every room he walked in, he knew, he made sure we know,” Cage explained. “I think Dracula, having been around for so many years, would have some of that aura.” He also quotes Anne Bancroft in The Graduate as another inspiration, he thinks she’s “very seductive and vampiric. So I’m looking at the way she talks, both my father and Anne Bancroft That mid-Atlantic way of speaking.”
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As for Holt, Renfield in Then reunited with Cage the weather forecaster , when the little actor was just 14.
“I think working with him again as an adult made me really appreciate what a master of his craft he is, how much he’s given to the film industry over the years, all of his Iconic performance, I think this is another one,” Holt told THR, adding that when he read the script, “I was like, ‘Oh, It feels different. It’s a wobble, but if it works out, then I think we’ll have a fun movie.’”
McKay said he knew Cage was right to play the iconic vampire , because “the way the script is written, he’s supposed to be Rock Dracula, so who could embody Rock Dracula better than Nicolas Cage? He’ll wear rings, he’ll wear clothes, he’ll look great, And he has the right attitude.”
The director remembers “nearly crying” when he first met Cage fully in costume: “It feels good, the movie is going to be successful ’” Co-star Ben Schwartz also said Cage was right for the role “because I think he’s unpredictable, I think he brings such a uniqueness to the character, you kind of don’t know what he’s going to do,” noting that he brought Here comes the 14 percentage for each scene.
“So he’s there, when he’s Dracula, he’s in the zone, and he’s getting himself excited like you’re doing a show with Dracula,” Shi Watts said. “The best part is when they say ‘Cut,’ you’re just hanging around next to Dracula and you’re like, ‘So I like Adaptation.’ So it’s very funny .”
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Renfield will be released in April 14.
Neha Joy contributed to this story.
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