The iconic American actor will be the next performer to give life to Dracula in a film directed by Chris McKay
Nicolas Cage did not hesitate to play Dracula in the movie ‘Renfield’ when he discovered the “relevance” of this new approach to the Prince of Darkness directed by Chris McKay, a film that addresses toxic and abusive relationships, and also in a comedy tone, the actor explained this Thursday in an interview with EFE.
“This Dracula, despite being monstrous, has his feelings”, said the interpreter about the vampire plaintiff that he embodies in the most recent feature film by the director of ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ (2017), where he shares the bill with Nicholas Hoult in the role of loyal servant who gives the film its name and who, among his main tasks, is to get prey for his master.
“There is something here that is made with great compassion and care when dealing with a toxic relationship“, explained the actor about Dracula’s codependent relationship with Renfield in this modern version of the blood-sucking monster.
In the film, which has a script by Ryan Ridley and is based on an original idea by Robert Kirkman, the brain behind the ‘The Walking Dead’ franchisethe godly Renfield is ready to find out if there is life outside the shadow of the seductive vampire after centuries of servitude.
The young assistant, who thanks to his master has the ability to acquire powers when he eats insects, begins going to group therapy for people who are in abusive relationships and later decides to help New Orleans Police officer Rebecca, played by actress and comedian Awkwafina, also a victim of a toxic environment.
“(The issue) is relevant because it is happening now, it is in people’s minds, in offices, homes, in relationships,” the actor deepens, adding that the film reflects how charming and affectionate the relationships can then be transformed into a situation in which feelings of “ownership, possession and jealousy” surface
Christopher Lee, his favorite Dracula
The American interpreter, with a long career that began in the 1980s, remembers it as one of his favorite movies as a teenager. John Landis’s film ‘An American Werewolf in London’ (1981), which had the perfect dose of comedy; and he felt that the “Renfield” script and McKay’s vision were close to that spirit.
“I was comfortable with the part,” he said about the role he had to play, deeply rooted in popular culture and in world cinema, from that masterpiece of German expressionism that was the 1922 film ‘Nosferatu’, by FW Murnau, and that the actor saw when he was barely five years old and left an indelible mark on him.
He confessed that when approaching the character he was clear about his intention to avoid a “crazy Transylvanian accent, which has been done a lot already”, and he took as reference the interpretations made by his colleagues such as Bela Lugosi, Gary Oldman or Christopher Lee, the latter his favorite Dracula.
It was even influential the “predatory” Mrs. Robinson who played Anne Bancroft in ‘The Graduate’ (1967)from whom the seductive voice of the famous character who gets involved in a toxic relationship with a young Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) took something.
But the voice that also resonated when creating his character was that of his own father, August Coppolawho spoke with “a mid-Atlantic accent” and was incredibly elegant and intelligent, he says, a man who used to show art and avant-garde films in his living room and ultimately influenced the direction he wanted to take in his acting career.
Oscar winner for best actor for ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ (1995), Nicolas Cage was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the 1990s and in the first decade of the 20th century.
In recent years He has shot many low-budget moviesmodest invoice and some of regular results, without this having prevented him from remaining a cult figure and highly vindicated, especially on social networks.
precisely last year starred in ‘The unbearable weight of a huge talent’a curious film of absurd humor in which Nicolas Cage plays himself and in which he is measured face to face with the Chilean Pedro Pascal.
After these years, the actor carries an interpretive background that, he considers, has given him the tools to put himself in the shoes of a character as iconic as Dracula, who, he said, was notor felt intimidated to incarnate.