Who plays Dracula in Renfield? More details revealed as Nicolas Cage’s makeup artist revealed that Oscar winner went to extreme lengths to portray character

American actor Nicolas Cage went to extreme lengths to portray the character of Dracula in Chris McKay's upcoming horror flick, Renfield. In an interview with Variety published on April 6, Cage's makeup artist for the film, Christien Tinsley, revealed that the 59-year-old actor spent three hours daily transforming into the character.

Tinsley revealed they used 3D printing to make Nicolas Cage's fangs for the character.

“This was the first film that I know of where we used 3D printing to do all the dentures, We jumped in headfirst with 3D printing. We would scan Nic’s teeth and digitally sculpt them.”

After the fake teeth were crafted, Tinsley said that the team "shaved Nic's teeth down."

“The dentures were fitted so as not to impede on Nic’s speech and allow full freedom. Nic wanted to emote and annunciate properly, so it was important the veneers were thin.”

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Nicolas Cage apparently stayed in character even off-camera

In the same interview with Variety, Christien Tinsley said Nicolas Cage spent a long time getting his makeup done to get the full essence of his character as Dracula.

“It was a full head of prosthetics, dentures, full body, torso, arms, hands and nails. Those take time.”

While speaking to Insider in March 2023, director Chris McKay shared that the actor did not leave his character even when the camera was not rolling.

“Whatever scene we did he would still be 100% living in that attitude after we stopped shooting. 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.”

However, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cage refuted the claims made by McKay and described his on-set experience as different from what the director shared.

“I just don’t have that recollection. I don’t know why Chris said that. I had a lot of laughs in between takes with both Chris McKay and Nick Hoult, so maybe that was his experience, maybe because I still had the fangs in my mouth that made me speak a certain way, but that wasn’t my experience.”

Earlier this week, Nicolas Cage shared his love for horror and comedy stories while describing his experience on the film set.

“My favorite movies blend comedy with horror. As a teenager, I saw ‘An American Werewolf in London.’ I laughed then screamed. I like being kept off-guard. ‘Renfield’ and its rage required four different Dracula looks.”

Helmed by Chris McKay, Renfield is written by Ryan Ridley and Robert Kirkman. The film also stars Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Rhonda Johnson Dents, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jenna Kanell, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez, Camille Chen, and Bess Rous in lead roles.