Sometimes it is hard for an actor to turn off that part of their brain that puts them in the shoes of a character. In an interview with Insider, Renfield director Chris McKay revealed that Nicolas Cage stayed in character as Dracula.
To nail a scene with a stake to the heart, filmmakers have to spend sometimes hours on the seemingly simplest shots and scenes. Whatever mood Dracula had to be in the scene, Nicolas Cage would remain in that mood when filming Renfield. Although he might be “frosty” between takes to maintain that mood for the vampire, The LEGO Batman Movie director ensured that the actor was “still up for whatever we were doing.”
Conversations with Nicolas Cage, who stayed in character as Dracula in Renfield
As a director, you may have to talk to your actors about the scene or their character, or their performance. Direction is the name of the job, so having those real conversations can be difficult when someone method acts as you are basically not talking to your actor in those cases, especially when they are covered in makeup and restrictive prosthetics. As the director noted, the Pig actor is “Dracula whether he wants to be Dracula or not.”
“Whatever scene we did he would still be 100% living in that attitude after we stopped shooting,” he said. “But you also have to remember, he’s covered head to toe in Dracula makeup and costume, so it’s a different thing.”
Method acting, to any degree, is a divisive way to go about acting. Some hate it, others embrace it, and everything in between. For the Oscar-winning actor, he found inspiration from shamans for his “Nouveau shamanism” form of acting. In an interview last year with Insider, he spoke about finding a “healthy way” to “believe you’re these characters.”
The upcoming horror comedy follows the titled character (Nicholas Hoult) trying to find a way out of his employment of serving the vampire lord. Directed by McKay, it was penned by Ryan Ridley (Community). The film also stars Awkwafina, Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse), and Ben Schwartz (The Afterparty). It will release in theaters on April 14.