When Shock Till You Drop visited the set of Dracula Untold in Belfast, Ireland in the fall of 2013, we spoke to the three actors driving the film’s dramatic themes: Luke Evans as Vlad Tepes, Sarah Gadon as his wife Mirena and Dominic Cooper as Mehmet II.
Here, you’ll find highlights of our conversation with this trio.
If you missed out on part one of our set report – I delve into the origins of the project and take you on a tour of the set and art department here.
LUKE EVANS – “VLAD TEPES”
On the difference between Vlad/pre-Dracula and post “transformation”: You meet Vlad at the beginning of the film and hes in a good place. Hes had 10 years of peace. Hes in a loving relationship with his beautiful wife and he has a good kid, and his people are happy and everything is prosperous, so hes quite in a good place. And then, the threat comes of an invasion by the Ottoman Empire and Mehmet, he loses his security and he becomes quite vulnerable, and you see the cracks start to show and the weaknesses. And you see that hes a very vulnerable leader. Then, he gains this gift in a way of these powers that he has after he chooses to become a vampire and you see a different character. He becomes more confident…he has hope all of a sudden in a different way. He also has these abilities, which he didnt have before which no one else knows about, but hes aware he can do these things and he can speak to you without opening his mouth and you can hear what hes saying and all those things, and he can fly and jump, hes immortal and his wounds heal, and all the stuff. I think that sort of stuff is good to play on. As we go further into the film, I get to play those internal confidence-boosting moments. I think theres a lot of Vlad that you see at the beginning that you see at the end. The important thing we wanted to impress in the character of Vlad and Dracula, when he becomes the vampire, is you see the human in the vampire. We dont want to disassociate the two people. We want to keep them the same person, the same emotional drive he has at the beginning of the film and the reasons why he does what he does are still prevalent at the end of the film. So, in a way, hes the same person, but in a way he isnt and he has other things going on. As much as he has this urge to drink the blood of a human, he really resists as much as he can because of the love for his first wife and his family and his kid and his people.
His transformation takes time: The transformation… He doesnt realize the powers immediately that he has. Its sort of a revelation as the plot goes on and his journey progresses. He becomes aware that he can do certain things and certain things happen to him and hes like, “Wow, thats useful,” and he actually does say, “Thats useful.” So yes, he has them all. I think as soon as he makes that decision, he does what he does in Caligulas cave, he gains all of those powers, but hes very unaware of them at the beginning. I mean, he thinks hes dead at one point and realizes hes alive and nobody can see him and then he can be seen, hes seeing ghosts. Its interesting because hes sort of discovering all these things as he goes along, but the vampiric part of him is only seen in very subtle moments. When he actually does go to bite, you see this incredible transformation, which is unique to this film, its unique to Dracula, its never been done before. He doesnt have the fangs the whole time. Im not talking with big fangs in my mouth the whole time, even though I have my own fangs. [laughs] Sometimes the unseen is often more exciting and more intriguing to an audience than what you see. If you spoon-feed every visual element of some character like Dracula, which were so used to seeing in so many different representations weve seen through the years, this one weve chosen to be very clever in when we show these moments of the vampire in him. But its quite beautiful when it happens to him, when he does go for the kill.
On the superhero-like origin tale the film adopts: If you read up about Dracula, hes able to transform into creatures, hes able to speak into your head without opening his mouth, he can physically make you do things, move, he can fly, hes immortal. He wont die as long as he doesnt stay in the sunshine and the daylight. His wounds heal, he has a few flaws, but you know, he tries to veer away from silver and the daylight, but in a way, we want to keep the human part of him alive so people can relate to him. He is sort of an antihero in a way, you know? Even though were used to thinking of Dracula as this man who lures women into bed and then kills them for their life force. Yeah, he does become that, but were beginning at the origin. This is the origin story of Dracula. Maybe that is where he ends up, in the Bram Stoker of the whole story, but at this point, hes still hoping thats not who hes going to become. He doesnt want to become what he sees in that cave up in Broken Tooth Mountain. Thats not a nice thought that he wants to live like that for the rest of his life.
Will we see his Vlad the Impaler days? Gary and I wanted to be very loyal to the real character here and he was known as Vlad the Impaler and we do touch on it quite a lot, especially when he meets his stepbrother, Mehmet II, played by Dominic Cooper, the Sultan. I mean, thats a whole different film, do you know what I mean? That there is a very dark R-Rated movie, but we dont ignore the fact that he did do those things and he was a very blood thirsty leader and warrior and he did do some incredibly shocking things. We do talk about them. There are scenes when that is brought up and you can see that hes uncomfortable with the fact that these are being brought up because people have sort of moved on and hes now become a leader that isnt all about the fact that he impales people in fields and kills thousands of people, but we dont ignore the fact either. It was very important for me to have that element of him in the film because, you know, he is Vlad the Impaler, he was the Lord Impaler, that was his title when he was brought up by the Turks. He gained all of those killing techniques from the Turks. Thats how he was brought up. Thats where he learned them all. There are a couple of moments where we honor the impaling techniques in very clever ways. You know, a thing about Vlad was, theres a lot of history books, theres a lot of biased history books, but if you read a lot, which Ive done, you find that he was revered by his people as not just a warlord and a terrifying leader of a country, but he was revered. He was a very fair ruler, he gave land to not only the aristocracy of his land, but he gave it to the poor people and he often brought in the working class to work with him and fight with him. He was very clever in that way. He wasnt all about money and land. He was about people feeling that theyve been something and they owed him something. It is interesting, and he was very respected by his enemies. Its on his tombstone on that little island in Romania where it says, He was a great ruler and respected by his enemies, which is a quite impressive thing to have.
On the physicality: Well, you might have seen today; my arms were out today, which is not very much, but I train all day long to keep them because muscles dont stay big. They constantly shrink, which is a really annoying thing. [laughs] My trainer is with me all day, we train before I come to work and then I just keep training all day. It is quite a lot of sort of semi-naked stuff in the film. Its not just about looking good out of your clothes. It was about, again, honoring the character I was playing. He was a warrior. He went to battle. He wasnt one of those that sent his men to battle. He was in the frontlines. He was a very active physical leader so I wanted, and so did the creative team, for him to look correct out of his clothes. I have a lot of scars in the beginning of the film before I become the vampire and it was all about a certain look, so that meant I started training for this job in May and my trainers been traveling with me since then and weve trained through two movies. Hes been to New Zealand with me and hes with me every day on the film and we train after work every day and my diet is specific. It goes on and on and on, but youre playing a leading role and sometimes thats what it requires and so Ive brought it to the table.
On reprising the role of Dracula for future films: Well yeah, if youre going to start a story anyway, you start at the beginning, right? You could go anywhere with Dracula right now. After this movie finishes, the story finishes in a very its like an open book. Where could he go? Hes immortal, hes a lonely man, he cant go back to his family, he loses his wife, he cant be around anybody hes been around, so it could go anywhere. Theres a lot of discussions about that and its very exciting and Im very much involved in the whole thing. Its nice to be part of something that could grow into something else and be there at the beginning of it. Its very, very nice not to pick up from somebody elses interpretation of the character.
