Nicolas Cage Ate Live Cockroaches For A Movie Role
Nicolas Cage has done some pretty nasty things for his craft. Cage, 59, recently recalled eating live cockroaches for a movie back in 1988.
The Renfield star told Yahoo! Entertainment recently that for Vampire’s Kiss, he ate roaches not once, but twice. Cage’s commitment to the role of his Peter Loew character was impressive, but it was all a prank.
“Oh yeah, I ate it twice because the director did it just to prank me,” Cage said. He told his Renfield co-star Nicholas Hoult about the experience. The publication asked Cage whether he gave Hoult advice on eating bugs in their newly-released vampire movie.
“I’m not one to give advice, but [Hoult] ate a potato bug, so he took it to another level,” he said. Hoult replied, “The cockroach is worse than a potato bug, I think… the cockroaches I got to eat in this were caramel.”
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A Bug’s Life
Hoult’s Renfield character eats bugs to gain superhuman powers granted to him by Conde Dracula (Cage). Though Hoult’s cockroaches had a caramel coating, Cage said the potato bug cuisine was “terrifying to me.” While laughing, Cage added that he will never eat roaches again. “I’m sorry I did it at all,” he said.
Hoult added that the crickets he ate for the film “were actually quite yummy” due to various flavors added to help them go down easier. “The potato bug didn’t dry out so good, and that tasted every bit of bug,” the Menu star said. Despite Cage’s apparent phobia for eating bugs, he admitted a bug-oriented diet “could solve world starvation. High protein, no fat, excellent nutrients, abundance — they’re everywhere. I mean, why not? But nope. Not gonna happen.”
Watch the interview below: