10 Actors Who Took Method Acting Too Far

“How much of it is Method and how much is just Nic Cage being Nic Cage?”

It’s an eternal question that has plagued film fans ever since Francis Ford Coppola’s most infamous nephew began to grace our screens in the eighties and repeatedly proved that there’s a thin line between crazy commitment to a role and—well, just everyday craziness. Take 1992’s bizarre satirical sort-of-horror Vampire’s Kiss, for example.

Cage went above and beyond when preparing for the role of a stockbroker who convinces himself he’s becoming a vampire during a mental breakdown—or the role of a vampire who’s a stockbroker, depending on your read. Told you it was a weird one.

While filming Cage actually ate a real cockroach rather than a prop for one shot, enraging the animal’s trainer. Director Robert Bierman later admitted that, although he was happy with the first take of the scene, he made Cage shoot it two more times since he was annoyed with him about something unrelated. Yum!

Of course Cage was already well acquainted with the method, having had two of his teeth pulled to play a Vietnam veteran in Birdy, saying he wanted to know “real pain” for the role.

Who let this man appear in a H.P Lovecraft adaptation? We’re lucky he didn’t awaken Yog-Sothoth during filming.