Nicolas Cage invokes voodoo spirit for 'Ghost Rider'

Nicolas Cage invoked a voodoo death spirit in preparation for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

The actor has explained how he prepared for his role in the Marvel Comics movie sequel.

"I would paint my face with black and white make-up to look like a Afro-Caribbean icon called Baron Samedi, or an Afro-New Orleans icon who is also called Baron Saturday," Cage told Empire. "He is a spirit of death but he loves children; he's very lustful, so he's a conflict in forces.

"And I would put black contact lenses in my eyes so that you could see no white and no pupil, so I would look more like a skull or a white shark on attack.

"On my costume, my leather jacket, I would sew in ancient, thousands-of-years-old Egyptian relics, and gather bits of tourmaline and onyx and would stuff them in my pockets to gather these energies together and shock my imagination into believing that I was augmented in some way by them, or in contact with ancient ghosts.

"I would walk on the set looking like this, loaded with all these magical trinkets, and I wouldn't say a word to my co-stars or crew or directors. I saw the fear in their eyes, and it was like oxygen to a forest fire. I believed I was the Ghost Rider."

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will open in cinemas on February 17, 2012.

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Watch the trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance below: