Nicolas Cage Regrets Eating a Cockroach for ‘Vampire’s Kiss’: “I’ll Never Do That Again”

Method acting comes at a price. Sometimes, that price is Brian Cox making fun of you in interviews, or it’s having to eat live insects twice in order to get the shot.

Nicolas Cage had to do just that thirty-five years ago when filming Vampire’s Kiss. And in conversation about his upcoming movie Renfield, the actor revealed he has no plans of ever doing it again.

“I’ll never do that again,” Cage — who plays Dracula in the new horror-comedy — admitted. “I’m sorry I did it at all.”

The actor only intended to try it once to get the shot for Vampire’s Kiss, but he revealed director Robert Bierman had other plans. “I ate [roaches] twice because the director did it as a prank,” he told Yahoo!

As Yahoo! notes, the actor previously shared that he was originally expected to swallow a raw egg for the scene. But he opted for live bugs. “I saw it as a business decision because when people see the cockroach go in my mouth… [they] really react,” he said in a DVD commentary for the cult comedy.

Thankfully, in Renfield he doesn’t have to. And neither does his co-star, Nicholas Hoult.

Hoult, who plays Dracula’s vampire lackey R.M. Renfield, got to enjoy candy insects, instead. “The cockroaches I got to eat in this were caramel,” Hoult said. “I also had crickets that were actually quite yummy; they were salt and vinegar flavored or barbecue smoky flavored.”

In the movie, Renfield snacks on insects in a desperate attempt to keep his energy up. But insects could be just what we need to solve world hunger, Cage says.

“If you could get rid of your fear, your phobia of eating insects, you could solve world starvation,” he explained. “High protein, no fat, excellent nutrients, abundance.”

“They’re everywhere! But nope — not gonna happen,” he continued.

The pair star opposite each other in the recently released horror comedy Renfield, in which Dracula’s henchman longs for a life away from the tyrannical vampire for the very first time.

Renfield is now playing in theaters.