Actor Nicolas Cage recently admitted that the cockroach he ate in 1988’s “Vampire’s Kiss” was real — and that director Robert Bierman had made him do a second take, in which he had to eat a second cockroach, as a sort of prank.
Cage, who stars as the infamous Count Dracula in the recently-released horror comedy “Renfield,” said in a Yahoo! News interview published the day the film was released in theaters that he regretted the decision to eat the cockroach. The discussion also featured his “Renfield” co-star Nicholas Hoult — who takes on the titular role.
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“I’ll never do that again,” Cage said of his roach-eating days on the set of “Vampire’s Kiss.” “I’m sorry I did it at all.”
The “Leaving Las Vegas” actor has discussed the moment before, noting that the original script had called for him to eat a raw egg and explaining that he didn’t believe that went far enough. “I saw it as a business decision because when people see the cockroach go in my mouth … [they] really react,” he said.
After the first take, Cage said that Bierman asked him to do it again — but maintains that he always intended to use the first take and only demanded a second in order to make his star eat another insect. “I ate [roaches] twice because the director did it as a prank,” Cage said.
Hoult got a reprieve, however, and when the script called for Renfield — Dracula’s long-suffering assistant — to chomp on an insect, he got a sweet treat instead.
“The cockroaches I got to eat in this were caramel,” Hoult said — but he added that he did eat some dried crickets, which he said were fine because they had been seasoned. “I also had crickets that were actually quite yummy; they were salt and vinegar flavored or barbecue smoky flavored.”
Cage was quick to point out that Hoult had also eaten a real potato bug — something that he said was terrifying to him personally — but Hoult was much less thrilled with the taste of that one.
“It wasn’t good. It didn’t dry out so good, and tasted every bit of bug,” Hoult said.
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Cage concluded with his thoughts on whether humans could ever sustain themselves by eating insects — and he said that while it would certainly be healthy, he did not see it taking hold.
“If you could get rid of your fear, your phobia of eating insects, you could solve world starvation. High protein, no fat, excellent nutrients, abundance. They’re everywhere! But nope — not gonna happen,” he said.