Nicolas Cage reveals he ate live cockroaches for a movie and regrets it
It can't be denied that a lot of actors are passionate about their projects and would sacrifice so much to ensure that audiences would enjoy their films. But there are some who would take things a little too extreme, such as Nicolas Cage, who revealed that he once ate live cockroaches for one of his films.
In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment as promotion for his new horror comedy film Renfield, Cage shared that he consumed not one, but two of the dirty pests during the making of his 1988 comedy Vampire’s Kiss. There, he plays a man who believes that he is now a vampire after he was bitten in the neck by a woman he took to bed.
As the reality of what he did dawned on him, Cage shared that eating the bugs is now part of his career regrets, "I’ll never do that again. I’m sorry I did it at all."
In actuality, the original script didn't have Cage eating cockroaches at all. Instead, it called for the actor to swallow a raw egg, but he later explained on the film's DVD commentary track that he was the one who urged the filmmakers to have him eat the insects.
"I saw it as a business decision because when people see the cockroach go in my mouth…[they] really react," he said.
Watch the clip of him eating the insect below:
The topic came about as Cage's Renfield co-star, Nicholas Hoult, had to eat the same kind of insects for the film. Only this time, the cockroaches weren't real.
"The cockroaches I got to eat in this were caramel. I also had crickets that were actually quite yummy. They were salt and vinegar flavored or barbecue smoky flavored," Hoult told the news outlet.
Cage then revealed that the crickets were potato bugs or Jerusalem crickets, which he described were "terrifying" to him and on "another level."
When asked what they tasted like, Hoult said, "It wasn’t good. It didn’t dry out so good, and tasted every bit of bug."
While eating anything with six long, spiny legs is now off the table for Cage, he believed that eating bugs may provide a solution to world hunger.
"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."
Renfield will open in Philippines cinemas on April 26.