Nicholas Hoult [Interview Special]

While every other channel is fighting for your customer's attention, podcasts are where they've already given it. No one accidentally listens to a podcast for 45 minutes. They choose to be here. They trust the voice in their ears.

And when that voice talks about your brand, it doesn't sound like advertising. It sounds like a recommendation from a friend. ACAST gives you that trust at scale. Digital precision, post-read authenticity, and performance data that proves it worked.

Don't fight for attention. Buy it with ACAST. Learn more by visiting acast.com slash advertise. Hello and welcome to Cagedin.

As ever brought to you by the Breadcrumbs Collective and hosted by me, Petros Pazilvas. We've got a very special episode for you today. Seeing as today is the release of the Christmas K directed. Sick walk to the 1931 Todd Browning Dracula.

The filming question is Renfield. And joining me on today's podcast is one of the film's stars. So not only does this film star Nicholas Cage, this also stars Nicholas Holt, who you may know from such films as the favorite Mad Max Fury Road, The Weatherman, about a boy. Or if you're a little Grebo millennial like me, you may remember the TV show Skins.

Tony will always have our hearts for a certain generation. Yeah, I got to speak down. I got to speak down. Got to sit down with Nicholas Holt for just shy of 10 minutes to kind of discuss this film, go into some of his preparations for the film, like the character himself and how he got into it.

And I never really asked him as well. What is his favorite Nicholas Cage film? So that's there for you to enjoy. Be sure to stick around for after this conversation, because I'll be giving some spoiler free thoughts on the film, and I'll be giving you what I kind of thought about it.

I feel like I need to let this one sit for a while before I fully cover it on the podcast. I feel like sometimes we rush into these kind of giving these lengthy four episodes on stuff when there's no chance to really sit at home and watch it and kind of fawn over it and get into the bones of it all. So yeah, join me after the conversation for that, and we'll have a chat about some other stuff as well. Until then, enjoy my conversation with Nicholas Holt.

I'm joined today with Nicholas Holt. First thing I want to ask you, Nick, is who is this Renfield that we see in this film as opposed to the ones we've seen before elsewhere on screen? Well, I suppose previously when you've seen Renfield on screen, it's been a close adaptation to the novel, to Bram Stoker's Dracula novel, whereas this story takes place a hundred years on from that story. Renfield has been working for Dracula for those years and is burned out, exhausted.

He's working for the most narcissistic, horrible, gas-lying boss imaginable, and he's had enough, and he's kind of worn down by it, and he's trying to find a way to escape and better his life. I'm always fascinated by what's the initial hook with this film? How was it pitch to you by like, was it Chris McKay, I imagine, who kind of pitched this one to you and what would it be? Yeah, and Chris, the Universal Monsters Realm had been kind of changing and switching up over the years, and this just felt like a very original fresh take on it.

And Chris McKay, I think he did such a wonderful job with Lego Batman and kind of a subverting expectations with that character, that I thought he'd be very safe hands to have Dracula and Renfield in and see where we could twist that relationship and find new things to explore within that and put it under a new guide. So it was just a fun, original concept. I recently spoke to Chris about this film, and he said, it doesn't work without you, and he said, do you bring this weirdness and vulnerability to the realm? How does it feel for one that obviously he felt that about this film doesn't exist throughout you and how important was it for you to find that balance between the weird and the vulnerable within the character?

Yeah, I mean, it's always a balancing. I think Chris was so fantastic at helping me balance that throughout the shooting. It's kind of interesting because Renfield, in previous iterations as well, is kind of more crazed at those moments in the story, whereas in this moment, that element of his nature, I think, has been toned down or worn down essentially. So he's looking for someone to be in inspiration and to be inspired.

And he discovers it through this story. So yeah, we were lucky we had a good script and then just great cast around and Chris and everyone. So it was kind of a playful, easy place to interpret and try things in terms of who Renfield was in this story. Amazing.

One of the things I noticed is the physicality of the character. How did you go about finding that physicality? And how important was that for you? Because obviously, not just action, we've got comedy here as well, and it's the way you carry yourself.

Yeah, it was interesting because Renfield is obviously someone who's used to being kind of a punching bag for Dracula, someone and having him lash out at him, whatever else. So there are elements to that with the physicality of always kind of being slightly subservient, but also protective of yourself and just trying to make yourself smaller around this huge powerful character that is Dracula. So that was kind of a physicality to begin with and then gradually that grows and evolves into him being a more confident kind of... You mentioned like a powerful character, obviously Nicholas Cage, like Dracula in this film.

What was it like for you that the first down set kind of seeing him all dolled up as Dracula? You know what? We got to do camera tests together that were really interesting for that. Because I mean, first of all, when you first see him as Dracula, it's kind of uncanny at times how similar to Belego's he could look in terms of also how he studied his mannerisms and Chris Ville and kind of drew inspiration from their performances.

But also this camera test where Chris McKay had music playing throughout and even though there wasn't scripted dialogue or anything, we weren't doing scenes. There was just a way about how we interacted and how Nick demanded things from me and I tried to look after him and take care of him. It was a lot of knowledge about how these characters interact, I think. So it was a fun first way to explore doing scenes together.

You get to see some of those camera tests right in the kind of credits of this movie. I think so, yeah, yeah. And I think it ends on a great shot of Nick kind of right at the end of the film. Obviously, yeah, you've worked with Nick previously on the Weatherman, about 20 years ago now, which is crazy.

20 years ago, yeah, man. So what are the kind of things that you had learnt from Nicholas Cage, like back then or is there anything you kind of picked up working with him this time around? You know, what, working with him at 14, I don't think I could fully understand or appreciate what it was. And I could walk away from my experience.

It was my first time doing a film in America and I could see his professionalism and his dedication and things like that. But working with him this time, it was just the level of detail that he goes into and where he draws inspiration from. You know, one of the inspirations that he used for this was and Ben Croft and Ben Croft in the graduate, which you would never expect for this relationship or this character playing Dracula. And that's what's really fun is then picking up on the different moments and what he's infusing it with.

So that was probably the main thing I learned from him in this. I mean, he's always dedicated and professional, but his ability to draw from so many different avenues and to spark great ideas from that. Is there a particular scene that you found like really fun to do with Cage? Because there's an apartment scene where Renfield's gone out and he's changed his life and he's got himself his own apartment, painted it, decorated it, got a new wardrobe.

And Dracula turns up, he kind of gets winded this and turns up at the apartment and they have a confrontation in it. And that was one of the most fun scenes to shoot. And one of the ones I was watching, Nick, and I just thought he was brilliant. Yes, personal stand out for me as well.

I'd be remiss not to ask you, my podcast is based around the films in Nicholas Cage. I always close every interview by asking, what's your personal favorite Nicholas Cage on? Do you have two horses in the race? Is that looking out?

Without others so many. I mean, adaptation has got to be very high up there, raising Arizona, moonstruck. I love going in 60 seconds. I've been saying that we need to reboot that.

Those are the ones that first come to mind. Why not heart? Why not heart? Yeah, there's so many.

Well, Nick, it's been an absolute pleasure. Congratulations on the amazing film. Thank you so much. That's how I appreciate it.

Well, there we go, guys. That was pretty fucking cool. I've got to tell you, I feel like now that the interview is done, I can kind of bear all the secrets, share with you my fears, my desperation, my kind of, this is something I've never redone for. I've done online junkets, done a lot of stuff through just zooming people, which obviously, yeah, I'm in the comfort of the Caged in Shed, the Caged in, if you were, whereas this was going to fancy London hotel, I mean, to wait in a room with people who obviously do this all the time and then sat on a chair in a kind of darkened hallway, being like, right, you're up next, and we'll grab you in about five minutes and kind of shitting my pants.

And yeah, you can see the video for this as well, which is over on the YouTube page. So you can kind of, I'm not sure if I've managed to hide the fear of that, in the moments when Nick is speaking and I've edited those bits. So you just see him. So yeah, you can't see the sheer terror on my face.

But yeah, this was a big, big fucking deal for me. And as many of you know, I think I've mentioned it on the podcast, or maybe I've just mentioned it on socials, I was given the opportunity to speak to Nick Liscais, I say I was given the opportunity, that was put on the table for this film, which would have been an absolute peach, right? That's kind of where this podcast is heading, right? There's one of the main goals of what we're doing here on this podcast is to interview the man himself.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen due to scheduling and Nick not doing press for the UK release of this, but oh boy, fuck, we were nearly there. We were nearly there guys, but we'll get him next time. But yeah, what an absolute lovely chat it was to speak to Nick Liscais. It was really nice, obviously really cordial.

You can imagine with a lot of these interviews and stuff like that, they're a bit like, I've got loads of this to do, I've just done, I've just done a load and got to do a load more, but yeah, I'm super happy with it. I hope you are as well. And how much did you want to see Nick Liscais whole in a gone in 60 seconds reboot? I would have that.

I would either have him as a new member of the crew or the villain. I would love to see the roles reversed that are in this film as a cage as the hero. He's black out for one last one last job, as opposed to the last job that he did in the last film. And I guess he's a bit older.

So maybe it'd be gone in 120 seconds, gone in 240 seconds, as opposed to 60. Maybe that's not doable. Maybe even quicker, like cars, I guess a lot of cars these days as well are, I just compute this, there's chips. So I've hacked into the mainframe, Bish, Bash, Bash, baby, you've got all those cars, no time whatsoever gone in 10 seconds, baby.

That's how we're living in the future. So that's for Renfield. I just wanted to give some brief thoughts on the film as I kind of said in the intro, or maybe this outro. I can't remember which one it was, but to give this the full episode treatment, I don't think it's fair to do so early on.

I've kind of made the mistakes in previous episodes of trying to see stuff at the cinema doing an episode really quick afterwards. And you don't really get to see how it's kind of sat with the culture, right? You don't get to see how people have taken to the film, the real consensus on it hasn't really, yeah, things haven't died down. And I'd rather do the best episode I can than the fastest episode I can.

And I feel like with this interview, with next week's Chris McCain interview, there's plenty of Renfield chat for you guys to get your ears around, as opposed to me just being one of many voices kind of wading into a deep dive on the film, which I personally feel like, yeah, we can't give it that deep dive that we like to do over here on Cagedin right now. But what I will say about the film is it draws upon some fantastic stuff that I love in cinema. So there's evil dead to in here. That's kind of grew a gruesome violence.

There's there's a there's a humor to it. It kind of feels like we're going back to a place and I guess that like we sort of like cocaine bear in a way, we're going back to our rated comedies for teens and adults that are just fun and funny. And this is a part of this is a part of that. And the kind of the total balance that this film does and has mentioned that interview of it goes weird, it goes sweet, it goes quite it's quite comedic, it's quite dark in places.

And I think it works really well. There's really nice kind of references to the older films. There's a great kind of opening set piece when Renfield tells his past with Dracula that's fantastic. And yeah, as we mentioned that interview, there is an absolute barnstormer of the scene between Nicholas Cage and Nicholas Holt that is absolutely masterclass and acting.

It's kind of Caged both being hilarious and terrifying at the same time, which is a strong feat. And it kind of I think horror comedy is something that is hard to get right. And I think this does it because it feels like there is both a reverence and irreverence for the source text in a way. There's kind of we know it so well that we're going to fuck with it.

And I think that's what any good kind of art does when it's looking at something, a prime example of this and a very sorry, very anglicized version of this would be people just do nothing people listening to this around the world who do not know about this. This is a BBC sitcom about a group of pirate radio station MCs and DJs. And they manage to like, yeah, it's a mockumentary style. But the way that that really works, I think to bring it into what this film is talking about, I think the way that that works and this works is the fact that there is this love and reverence for the world that is in.

In this case, there's a big reverence for horror for the character of Dracula. But to obviously undercut it, you have to have that reverence in the way that people just do nothing. They've got a fondness for that scene. So they can they can poke fun at it without it feeling like it's punching down.

And I don't think this film ever feels like it's punching down upon Dracula or sees the kind of monsters universe IP as kind of lesser than what it is. It kind of treats it. Yeah, with the reverence place, it's super fun. And I feel like all I'm doing here is talking about Nicholas Cage and Nicholas Holt.

And that would be under serving the kind of great talent we have elsewhere in this film. So Aquafina is kind of there doing Aquafina, but she's just great with it. She kind of again, she really rides that line between this bitter angraness that her character has, this vulnerability and sweetness that I think this film's got heaps of in spades and buckets and with Ben Schwartz as well. It's fantastic as Tedwood Lobo, who is this kind of maniacal, mad little brat of a mobster son who kind of just goes about getting away with all shit because he is who he is.

So yeah, they're really fun. The kind of the this is and this is a perfect kind of it's 90 minutes long. You have a couple of you have a pizza, a couple of beers, a Friday night, you have some friends. I just like, I don't want to I don't want to rate this film just in the fact of I want to get to that when the dust the set, but I will be watching this again in the coming week or so just because I really want to yeah, I really want to dive back into what this film had to offer because I I really did enjoy it and I hope you do too.

So rush on out to cinemas and check out Renfield as for next week on the podcast, as I've said in this conversation, next Tuesday's episode will be a lengthier interview. So 45 minute long interview with Chris McAde, the film's director and we get into a lot of fun stuff there. We kind of cover some of the ground in here. We cover a lot more ground than I had time to hear this.

Yeah, it's really fun. We ended up just nerding out about Nicholas Cage, which is as I'm sure you're aware from listening to this podcast is something that I like to do quite frequently. So that's a lot of fun. So stick around next week for that episode.

If you've enjoyed this episode, why any other podcast? I would like to support us with some money. Head on over to patreon.com forward slash cajun in pod where you can get a whole heap of bonus stuff. Right now, I imagine, seeing as the video for this is not actually going up till later today.

You'll be able to watch it if you're listening to this dead on, you'll be able to for a pound a month. You'll be able to watch that right now as opposed to waiting a little bit. Anyway, but yeah, there's early access on stuff. There's a lot of bonus stuff.

There's stuff in the pipeline as there always is. It's just a lot of time. A lot of time. Just need more time.

The more you guys give me the patreon money, the less work I have to actually do. And then, yeah, then I'll be able to do it. I'll be able to spend all the time providing patreon content for you and more content and fun, fun stuff. At the moment, I've got a balanced man life.

If you want to support the podcast and don't want to give me direct money and you want something tangible, you can head over to our tea public store or Etsy shop and get a handful of amazing different designs from Tim Sinclair, who's kind of a man who I come up with an idea and he says, Hey, here you go. Here's my idea. You came up with. So there's a few man be inspired t-shirts.

There are a lot of fun. There is a wicker man inspired t-shirt and there's this kind of crazy idea that came up after an episode with Mark Hoffmeyer when we were talking about the old way, about the ultimate mashup. And I guess it's kind of pertinent to not just this film, but also a film that's coming out very soon in Evil Dead Rise. We came up with the idea that wouldn't it be great if there was a man de slash evil dead crossover movie called like the evil red or the evil wicked no the wicked evil dead or something something to that effect.

Yeah, yeah, we'll have that. So yeah, you could buy that design as well. If you don't want to do any of that and you still want to support podcast, you can do so by heading on over to Apple Podcast Spotify or whatever you're listening to this right now and leave a five star rating and review. Remember in your review to let me know what does Bill Murray say to Scarlett Hansen at the end of Lost in Translation to have it read out on the podcast.

So as ever guys, I've been Petros Passolos. I've been Caged in and I'll catch you next time.