Nicolas Cage has done some spooky things for his movie roles, including taking on the role of Johnny Blaze in the Ghost Rider films. The most unusual, even for Cage, was when he stayed not only in a haunted house in Louisiana, but also Dracula’s Castle.
The nephew of the renowned director Francis Ford Coppola, Nicolas had decided to change his last name to make it on his own merits. Taking on the last name of not-so-well-known Marvel Comics character Luke Cage (one of his favorites), he certainly distanced himself from his already famous relative. The way he became famous was apparently by taking odd roles and putting his own brand of strangeness into them.
To prepare for one of his least successful films, Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance , Cage had spent a night in Dracula’s Castle in Romania to “channel the energy,” said costar Idris Elba. Elba had seen him come on the set and noticed he had that “up all night” look about him.
The best Nicolas Cage story ever involves Dracula’s castle and Idris Elba. Yes, we’re serious. http://t.co/bWsheCN3M7 pic.twitter.com/5oZ3PbdXER
— entertainment.ie (@entertainmentIE) September 23, 2014
That was when Nicolas Cage confessed he’d spent the night in the fabled ruins, and Elba could only ask why he did that.
Idris Elba explained Cage’s actions as well as he could.
“We were shooting in Romania, Transylvania, and he just went up there to spend the night, as you do. And then he walked away. True story.”
Cage also owned a haunted house in Louisiana from 2007 to 2009. He had been writing a horror novel and wanted some inspiration, so it only made sense to him that said inspiration should come from the home of a notorious serial killer.
The home had once belonged to Madame Lalaurie , a nineteenth century socialite known for torturing and murdering her slaves. Apparently a history of violence and suffering was all the house had to offer, because Nicolas Cage admitted he didn’t get very far with the novel despite it having been called the “most haunted house in America.”
Cage’s attraction to all things spooky seems to have no end, since he once starred as a man who thought he had become a vampire after getting involved with an allegedly undead lover.
The Left Behind actor may have gotten his start in spooky dealings when someone had allegedly told him his son Weston would be dead by the age of 15. That person was wrong, but the message may have played with Cage’s mind a bit much and created a curiosity about the things that go bump in the night.
Would you do what Nicolas Cage had done, and slept in a haunted house or even Dracula’s Castle to gain inspiration?
[image via Games Brains and Headbanging ]