Nicolas Cage Spent Three Hours a Day Transforming Into Dracula Complete With 3D-Printed Veneers for RENFIELD

Nicolas Cage is about to take the screen with one of the biggest characters he’s ever played, and that’s saying a lot! Cage became Dracula for the film Renfield, and the daily transformation meant three hours in the makeup chair, complete with 3D-printed pointed teeth that were straight out of director Chris McKay’s dreams.

The film’s makeup artist, Christien Tinsley (The Passion of the Christ, Emancipation), explained to Variety that with the teeth design, it was important to consider how Dracula’s teeth would extract from the gums, as was making swift adjustments once Cage was on set, meaning he wouldn’t have much time to prep dentures and teeth casting using traditional denture methods. The eventual solution was to use 3D printing.

Tinsley said:

“This was the first film that I know of where we used 3D printing to do all the dentures. We jumped in headfirst with 3D printing. We would scan Nic’s teeth and digitally sculpt them.”

Using acrylic digital resin that was then printed, Tinsley says the technological advances of 3D printing “allowed us more freedom to create different designs very quickly.” He could also produce dozens at a time within minutes. “That allowed us to make them as thin as possible because if they broke, we could have another set ready to go,” he says.

Once he had his “teeth,” Tinsley says:

“We shaved Nic’s teeth down and the dentures were fitted so as not to impede on Nic’s speech and allow full freedom. Nic wanted to emote and annunciate properly, so it was important the veneers were thin.”

McKay’s Renfield reverse engineers Dracula’s appearance, beginning with a worn and depressed look that morphs into a “beautiful” Dracula. The film follows the character through four different transformation stages.

Tinsley said of Dracula’s look:

“Nic had a great face, and we wanted to embody something that was unique, so we went with the paler skin that had a blue hue.”

It was also important for Dracula to have a theatrical feel. To achieve that, Tinsley hollowed out Cage’s eyes and gave his lips shadowing. Tinsley nicknamed the film’s introduction to Dracula, which shows him covered with sores and deformities, as “Picasso.” Referencing early Renaissance wax sculptures, Tinsley says:

“Artists would come in and sculpt the anatomy of corpses and people with diseases into wax, and that’s how we came up with this odd, weird and bizarre first stage.”

That first process took up to three and a half hours to apply. “It was a full head of prosthetics, dentures, full body, torso, arms, hands and nails,” details Tinsley. “Those take time.” As Dracula starts to heal, there’s progression, but still some open sores. The next stage took around two and a half hours to complete. The more Dracula is fed with human blood, the more he heals. By the end, his “normal” makeup took 45 minutes to apply.

Tinsley finally added:

“There’s a blue hue about him. It’s very iridescent. If you see it in person, he almost looks like a metallic robot. I added a lot of teal iridescence to the makeup. In person, he would shimmer and shine, and on camera, it allows for a healthy glow to the skin, so he doesn’t look like a cadaver.”

There’s something wild and regal about the way Cage looks as Dracula, and it’s even cooler looking at him and knowing what a process it was to get him to look that way! Especially with those crazy teeth. Cage is nothing if not committed to his craft.

Renfield is set to hit theaters this weekend on April 14th. I’ll be there watching, will you?