Nicolas Cage would like to set the record straight on recent reports that he stayed in character as Dracula the whole time he filmed Renfield. Director Chris McKay previously told Insider that Cage would “would still be 100 percent living in that attitude after we stopped shooting.” Cage doesn’t remember it that way, but the iconic actor does have an idea of where that notion may have come from.
“I just don’t have that recollection, I don’t know why Chris said that,” Cage told The Hollywood Reporter. “I had a lot of laughs in between takes with both Chris McKay and Nick Hoult so maybe that was his experience, maybe because I still had the fangs in my mouth that made me speak a certain way, but that wasn’t my experience.”
While Cage didn’t go full Method acting, he did put a whole lot of thought into his performance. He also had some unusual inspirations for his portrayal.
Via THR:
“He always spoke with distinction, he was always very elegant and eloquent, he was always the smartest man in every room he walked in and he knew, and he made sure we knew,” Cage explained. “I think Dracula, being around for so many years, would have some of that aura.” He also cited Anne Bancroft’s performance in The Graduate as another inspiration, who he thought was “very seductive and Dracula-esque. So I was looking at her manner of speaking, kind of mid-Atlantic vocalization that both my father and Anne Bancroft had.”
At the end of the day, Cage wanted to make sure he was hitting the right comedic tone, but still honor the terror of the Prince of the Night.
“With this Dracula I was trying to fuse that which is scary and humorous even at the same time in the line delivery,” Cage said. “It was just how can you be creepy and funny at the same time, that was the challenge.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)