The movie that helped Nicolas Cage face his biggest fear
With a career spanning over four decades, Nicolas Cage’s unparalleled ability to embody a vast array of characters has earned him a place among the most celebrated actors of his generation. From intense dramatic roles to thigh-slapping comedy performances, Nicolas Cage devotes himself fearlessly to each role, conveying authenticity at every turn.
Throughout his illustrious career, Cage has amassed a diverse and impressive body of work, defying expectations with his daring choices and distinctive approach to storytelling. Leaving Las Vegas of 1995 and 2002’s Adaptation remain Cage’s two most critically revered performances, earning him two Academy Award nominations for ‘Best Actor’, the first of which he won.
These more serious drama roles are balanced out in Cage’s filmography by comedy and action roles like those in Con Air and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. No matter what the role, Cage appears to give his all, even if that means facing his worst fears.
In 1989, Cage starred in Robert Bierman’s black comedy horror movie Vampire’s Kiss. Although the movie was a box office flop at the time, it went on to become a cult classic, not least because of Cage’s disturbing and hilarious performance as Peter Loew, a literary agent grappling with his sanity.
As Loew courted insanity, believing himself to be a vampire, Cage was initially challenged by screenwriter Joseph Minion with sucking on a raw egg to convey his loss of marbles. However, Cage felt he could incite more fear in his audience with something more daring than a raw egg.
“The thing I hate most in the world are cockroaches. They are my Room 101. So let me eat a cockroach,'” Bierman recalled Cage saying while shooting Vampire’s Kiss. “He wanted to eat the most frightening thing for him. I thought, ‘This is terrific!'”
“I sent my prop people down into the boiler room,” he added. “They brought me a box, divided up into little sections with tissue paper. The cockroaches were there, lined up for me to cast. I think they’re actually called water bugs—they’re bigger than cockroaches.”
In the movie clip below, Cage can be seen facing one of his worst fears as he crunches through real cockroaches. “I really [wanted] to do something that would shock the audience, something you would never forget,” he reflected in the DVD commentary.
