Nicolas Cage Once Ate Live Cockroaches for a Movie, and He’ll ‘Never Do That Again’: ‘I’m Sorry I Did It at All’

Nicolas Cage will not be eating cockroaches on camera ever again. The Oscar winner recently told Yahoo Entertainment that eating two cockroaches on camera during the making of his 1988 comedy Vampires Kiss remains a career regret. Ill never do that again, Cage said. Im sorry I did it at all.

Vampires Kiss stars Cage as a literary critic who becomes convinced he is a vampire. The films script originally called for the actor to swallow a raw egg, but Cage insisted it be a cockroach instead. As he said on the films DVD commentary track: I saw it as a business decision because when people see the cockroach go in my mouth[they] really react.

In Cages new film, Renfield, his co-star Nicholas Hoult is the one eating cockroaches. Although in this case, the cockroaches werent real.

The cockroaches I got to eat in this were caramel, Hoult told Yahoo Entertainment. I also had crickets that were actually quite yummy; they were salt and vinegar flavored or barbecue smoky flavored.

[Nicholas] ate a potato bug, so he took it to another level, Cage added about his co-star. [Potato bugs] are terrifying to me, and so are cockroaches.

How do potato bugs taste? It wasnt good, Hoult said. It didnt dry out so good, and tasted every bit of bug.

While Cage wont be eating bugs on camera again, he did tell Yahoo that eating bugs could solve a real-world issue.

If you could get rid of your fear, your phobia of eating insects, you could solve world starvation, Cage said. High protein, no fat, excellent nutrients, abundance. Theyre everywhere! But nope not gonna happen.

Renfield is now playing in theaters nationwide from Universal Pictures.