Nicolas Cage, the Renfield star, recently confided about his one major regret in the acting life. While promoting his latest horror comedy movie, Renfield, Cage told Yahoo Entertainment about an incident in which he had to eat a real cockroach for a part in his 1988 flick, Vampire’s Kiss. According to him, it was a business decision because adding that element to the film made people react more. However, Cage regrets the decision of eating a cockroach and stated that “I’ll never do that again. I’m sorry I did it at all.”
Cage’s performance in Vampire’s Kiss required him to walk around New York with fake fangs and eating the cockroach, as his character believed that he had transformed into a vampire. Cage explains how the insect eating was improvised from the intended raw egg swallowing scene in the movie. However, the scene required a retake, where director Robert Bierman deliberately made Cage eat the cockroach again as a prank. The actor recalls, “I ate [roaches] twice because the director did it as a prank.”
Contrasting this, Renfield actor Nicolas Hoult appears to have gotten away lightly in terms of insect eating. In Renfield, Hoult’s character is required to eat bugs, but the bugs in the movie were made from food for human consumption. As compared to Cage’s predicament, Hoult’s crickets were salt and vinegar flavored or barbecue smoky flavored, and the cockroaches he got to eat were made of caramel. Although Cage regrets his decision, he believes that insects are a good source of high protein, are nutrient-rich and abundant. Hence, overcoming the stigma associated with the consumption of insects could solve the problem of world hunger. But, as Cage puts it, “not gonna happen”.
In conclusion, while acting may involve some rough decisions, eating a live cockroach, on hindsight, was likely not one of them. It was a mistake Cage won’t make again, and he definitely does not recommend it to others. It is vital to prioritize one’s health and safety in any profession, even if that means leaving some improvisation out of the movie.
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