Nicolas Cage is an extraordinary actor who gets his inspiration from some of the most unlikely places. That’s why when Nicholas Hoult revealed that the famous Face/Off actor drew his inspiration for how to portray Dracula in Renfield from Anne Bancroft’s character in The Graduate, it really shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
Renfield is a different take on Horrible Bosses with an interesting twist where the employee has been dead for about a hundred years and his boss happens to be the very narcissistic and possessive Count Dracula. Nicholas Hoult plays Renfield, the Transylvanian vampire’s familiar who kills people and drags their bodies back to his boss for him to suck dry. Renfield has finally had enough of his morbid routine and has turned to a self-help group in New Orleans where he begins the steps to separate himself from his “co-dependent relationship.”
It’s a very hysterical premise with such a unique storyline based on Bram Stoker’s original work, a story that has been done about a hundred times in Hollywood. Knowing that the character has been explored to death, Nicolas Cage wanted to take his Dracula in a totally different direction, and that’s where Anne Bancroft comes into play. According to SYFY, referencing an interview in the January 2023 print copy of Empire, the film’s director Chris McKay talked about his conversations with Nicolas Cage on his role.
“We talked a lot about silent acting. Things like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, making shapes with his body. You’re gonna see allusions to Nosferatu, all the way to Anne Bancroft in The Graduate.”
Anne Bancroft in The Graduate
According to CNN, Nicholas Hoult said, “I don’t think it gets more iconic than Nic Cage playing Dracula.” He went on to explain, “He’s having so much fun with the role, bringing so much inspiration from previous movies, from the book, but also from unexpected places like The Graduate and Anne Bancroft.”
Pulling inspiration from The Graduate — and Mrs. Robinson’s character at that — might seem to come from way out of left field, but it’s just the way Nicolas Cage works. In the story, Mrs. Robinson is the wife of a lawyer who is partners with Benjamin’s father. Played by Dustin Hoffman, Benjamin is seduced by Mrs. Robinson where they have a summer fling that gets dangerously serious when his parents push for him to date her daughter, Elaine. There is much to draw from that character when it comes to toxic relationships and possessive behavior that Nicolas Cage saw somehow in his own authentic way.
Of course, Cage is not new to vampire movies, having taken on the role of a deranged man who thinks he’s a vampire in Vampire’s Kiss and also having a part in the making of Shadow of the Vampire as the producer. With Renfield coming out in theaters today, this just might be his best vampire movie yet since he actually gets to play one — and he’s also the star.