Nicolas Cage went full method on the set of “Renfield,” according to his co-star Adrian Martinez.
“He was very much in the zone when we did this movie,” Martinez told Page Six exclusively at the film’s New York City premiere last Tuesday. “Like, I couldn’t tell who was Dracula and who Nic Cage was. He was very serious.”
The “Focus” actor, 51, added that he “just laid low,” joking, “I didn’t want to piss him off!”
Chris McKay, who directed the comedy-horror, previously revealed that Cage, 59, had embodied his Transylvanian character during the shoot.
“Whatever scene we did, he would still be 100 percent living in that attitude after we stopped shooting,” the filmmaker, 49, told Insider. “So if he’s a little frosty in the scene, hes going to have a little bit of that between takes but still up for whatever we were doing.”
However, the Oscar-winning movie star was quick to deny the claim.
“I just don’t have that recollection; I don’t know why Chris said that,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
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It’s not the first time Martinez has worked with Cage, having co-starring in 2016’s “Army of One.”
Martinez told us that when he saw his former colleague again on the “Renfield” set, the “Leaving Las Vegas” star intoned, “‘Adrian, we find ourselves in some interesting company, again,’” to which the “Secret Life of Walter Mitty” actor replied, “‘Yeah, we totally do.’”
Cage isn’t the only iconic actor Martinez has filmed with.
The NYC native has also worked twice with Bruce Willis, in 2010’s “Cop Out” and 2017’s “Once Upon a Time in Venice.”
“He’s a good man,” Martinez told Page Six of the “Die Hard” star, 68, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia earlier this year. “I just feel like it really reminds me to make the most of each day because for a while he was on top of the world, indestructible, saving buildings and people, but my heart is out to him and his family.
“It’s sad, but his legacy will live on. He put a lot of smiles on people’s faces for a lot of years.”
Other stars at the flashy premiere included Cage, who came with his wife, Riko Shibata, as well as Nicholas Hoult and Ben Schwartz.
In “Renfield,” Hoult, 33, plays a tortured aide to his narcissistic boss, Dracula (Cage), who after centuries of servitude explores if there is a life outside toiling for the Prince of Darkness.
“It was a way to look at ‘Dracula’ through the lens of codependency, through the lens of the boss from hell, through the lens of a toxic relationship, in a fun way,” McKay told us.
(this story has not been edited by Showbizkiller staff and is published from a syndicated feed. Pagesix.com )
