Nicolas Cage Reveals The Inspirations For His Dracula Performance In Renfield

Ever since his debut in Bram Stoker's iconic 1897 novel that bears his name, Dracula has been a prolific character in fiction, with countless incarnations across all forms of media. The Dark Prince has been a showcase for screen actors going all the way back to Max Schreck in 1922's "Nosferatu," and now, at long last, it's Nicolas Cage's turn to step into the role. 

Cage will be playing the character in an upcoming Universal film titled "Renfield," which is centered on Dracula's bug-eating sycophantic ward and stars Nicholas Hoult in the title role. The film is purported to be a comedic take on the familiar story, which gives Cage fans yet another reason to be excited about what kind of spin he's going to put on the immortal vampire.

As usual with Cage's work, the actor is drawing on a deep well of influences in order to perfect his performance. And in a recent interview, Cage shared some of the ingredients that are going into the stew that will be his Dracula.

Nicolas Cage recently appeared on the Variety "Awards Circuit" podcast, and the upcoming film "Renfield" naturally came up. Cage revealed that one of his methods of preparation has been to turn to previous Draculae of the silver screen. "I looked at Bela Lugosi's performance, and then I looked at Frank Langella's performance..." Cage said, before revealing that he also turned to Gary Oldman's performance in his uncle Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula," which Cage called "just so sumptuous."

But it wasn't just previous portrayals of Dracula that inspired Cage's own interpretation. He says that he looked at the character Sadako from the Japanese horror classic "Ringu" (known to American audiences as "The Ring"), as well as the recently released James Wan film "Malignant," for inspiration for the character's physicality. "I want it to pop in a unique way from how we've seen it played...So I'm thinking to really focus on the movement of the character," Cage explained.

Nic Cage as Dracula is an exciting prospect on its own, especially for fans of his incredible early performance in the 1989 film "Vampire's Kiss." But when you look at how much preparation and study Cage is putting into the role, it really becomes something to look forward to.