Nicolas Cage Reveals His Biggest Regret In His Entire Film Career—'I'll Never Do It Again'

Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage opened up about his biggest regret in his Hollywood career where he admittedly went too far while filming a scene.

Cage revisited a familiar genre playing a vampire in a contemporary take on Dracula in the new dark comedy film, Renfield.

It's not the first time he sunk his teeth into playing a blood-sucking character.

In 1988, Cage starred in the cult comedy, Vampire's Kiss, and a scene involved him eating a cockroach.

But instead of consuming an edible prop, the all-or-nothing actor at the time actually ate the real thing.

He told Yahoo Entertainment:

"I'll never do that again."

You can watch the interview, here.

Roach or potato bug? Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult compare on-set insect eating youtu.be

In Vampire's Kiss, Cage played a literary agent who is convinced he's become a vampire after believing he was bitten by a vampire played by actress Jennifer Beals.

He assumes his imagined reality by going about wearing fake fangs and consuming cockroaches for breakfast.

Cage explained in a DVD commentary for Vampire's Kiss that the script called for his character to swallow a raw egg. But he wanted to take it a step further.

He recalled:

"I saw it as a business decision because when people see the cockroach go in my mouth... [they] really react."

He added that the film's director Robert Bierman was so impressed with Cage's dedication, he made him eat another one.

"I ate [roaches] twice because the director did it as a prank."

The topic of consuming insects arose when the interviewer referred to Cage's Renfield costar Nicholas Hoult–who plays the titular character of Dracula's servant in the film.

Although Hoult ate a potato bug for a scene, he was more impressed upon discovering Cage ate a live insect for the sake of his art not once, but twice before.

Cage downplayed his cockroach–eating past and said:

"[Hoult] ate a potato bug so he took it to another level."

Cage continued:

"[Potato bugs] are terrifying to me, and so are cockroaches. I'll never do that again."

"I'm sorry I did it at all."

As for how the potato bug tasted, Hoult said:

"I had crickets that were actually quite yummy; they were salt and vinegar flavored or barbecue smoky flavored."

"The potato bug didn't dry out so good and that tasted every bit of bug."

Cage wrapped things up with a profound take on how overcoming the stigma of bug-eating can do the world some good.

"If you could get rid of your fear, your phobia of eating insects, you could solve world starvation."

"High protein, no fat, excellent nutrients, abundance."

However, after promoting its health benefits, Cage stuck to his conviction about eating insects.

"They're everywhere! But nope—not gonna happen."

Renfield was written by Ryan Ridley from a story by Robert Kirkman.

It is inspired by the characters in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.

The new film–which serves as a sequel to the 1931 film of the same name–also stars Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, and Shohreh Aghdashloo.