Nicolas Cage was so dedicated to playing Dracula in 'Renfield' he had his teeth shaved down

• Nicolas Cage was so dedicated to playing Dracula in "Renfield" that he had his teeth shaved down.
• "We shaved Nic's teeth down and the dentures were fitted," makeup artist Christien Tinsley said.
• "Renfield" director Chris McKay previously said Cage stayed in character even when cameras stopped. 

When preparing to play Dracula in "Renfield," Nicolas Cage was so dedicated to the role he had his teeth shaved down, makeup artist Christien Tinsley revealed in a recent interview. 

Tinsley told Variety this week that "Renfield" may be the first film ever where 3-D printing was used to create dentures, a much swifter process that allowed the makeup artist to create dozens of designs in minutes and make adjustments as needed when Cage was on set. 

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

Cage's transformation into the iconic vampire didn't end there. The actor, whose character has four distinct looks over the course of the 93-minute film, sometimes spent three-and-a-half hours a day in hair and makeup. 

 "It was a full head of prosthetics, dentures, full body, torso, arms, hands and nails," Tinsley explained. "Those take time."

As "Renfield" director Chris McKay told Insider's Jason Guerrasio in late March, Cage stayed in character even when the cameras weren't rolling. That applied to conversations the director and actor had about scenes. 

"Whatever scene we did he would still be 100% living in that attitude after we stopped shooting," McKay told Insider. "So if he's a little frosty in the scene he's going to have a little bit of that between takes. But still up for whatever we were doing."