It sounds like Nicolas Cage was having so much fun playing Dracula in "Renfield," he couldn't let go of the character when a scene was finished.
"Renfield" director Chris McKay ("The Lego Batman Movie," "The Tomorrow War") revealed to Insider that the actor, whose dedication to his performances has become legendary, would stay in character even when cameras stopped.
"Whatever scene we did he would still be 100% living in that attitude after we stopped shooting," McKay said while promoting the movie over the weekend. "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."
McKay said there would even be times when he would have to have "a real conversation" about a scene with Cage and the actor would still not break being the Dracula character.
"But you also have to remember, he's covered head to toe in Dracula makeup and costume, so it's a different thing," McKay said. "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."
This is hardly the first time Cage has engulfed himself in a character he plays. Back in 2016, director Paul Schrader told Insider how the actor convinced him to allow his character to channel screen icon Humphrey Bogart at the end of the movie "Dog Eat Dog" (yes, Cage does a Bogart impersonation in that movie).
The same year, actress Wendi McLendon-Covey told Insider that Cage was so deep into character for their movie "Army of One," in which Cage plays a guy who tries to hunt down Osama bin Laden with just a samurai sword, that she admitted: "I can't say that I've met Nicolas Cage."
The horror/comedy "Renfield" opens on April 14 and stars Nicolas Hoult as R. M. Renfield, the long-suffering servant of Cage's Dracula. Set in the modern day, we watch as Renfield finally tries to leave the toxic relationship he has with his master.
The movie also stars Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz.
