Luke Evans (LE)<\/strong>: It was \u2018Sesame Street,\u2019 and then Count Duckula, who was a vampire duck. Then it was a Saturday matinee on TV with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing films. Then in my teenage years it would have been \u2018Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula\u2019 by Francis Ford Coppola. Then I stopped with Dracula.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you agree that your Dracula resembles, more so than other incarnations, superhero characters?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: I think the superhero aspect is very interesting, because he\u2019s able to fly and do all these very superhuman things. But what you have to remember is that all these powers that he has in this movie are not something that we\u2019ve created because we\u2019re doing a Hollywood blockbuster.<\/p>\n His powers come from Eastern European folklore. Vampires were always able to transform into creatures of the night. The dark creatures like bats, and using the darkness to their own advantage, have always been associated with vampires. So we just embellished those powers and we just brought them into the 21st century. We were able to use this amazing CGI technology that we have now, and bring them into this storyline. But really we owe that to Eastern European folklore, which goes back centuries, before any of the superheroes we now know of even existed.<\/p>\n Q: Can you be a monster and a superhero at the same time?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: It\u2019s an interesting question, isn\u2019t it? I think what we\u2019ve done with this story is make you question that. He has a very interesting line in the film when he\u2019s speaking to the Master Vampire (played by Charles Dance). He says: \u201cSometimes the world no longer needs a hero. Sometimes it needs a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s trying to get onto the right side of this sinister creature, and I get why he says it. But I don\u2019t know whether you can be a monster and a hero in the real world. But during the time we placed this film-somewhere in the 1460s-the world is a very different place. Vlad\u2019s take on how to rule a country was that by putting one village to the stake, he saved 10 more.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not how we live our lives now. Well, actually, there are places in the world where this sort of stuff is going on, but that doesn\u2019t relate to this film. I think heroes are the people that go into houses when they\u2019re on fire and save people in hospitals. That\u2019s a hero, not the monsters.<\/p>\n Q: You have a lot of experience with mythic periods, between \u2018The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug\u2019 and \u2018Robin Hood.\u2019 What is it about you that makes people say, \u201cThat\u2019s the man to go to for mythic periods?\u2019 What have you learned from that experience that you were able to apply to the next experience?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know. Maybe I\u2019m an old soul, and I\u2019ve lived before. Maybe directors see a face that seems to have been lived in. I guess I have a certain look about me. I think once I\u2019m in a costume or I\u2019ve got a certain period look, I seem to fit it quite well. I don\u2019t know why that is. I\u2019m quite happy that\u2019s the case, because it\u2019s actually quite fun to jump into a world that doesn\u2019t exist anymore, or didn\u2019t exist ever. But it\u2019s exciting because it\u2019s an incredibly immersive job, as an actor, to disappear into a world that doesn\u2019t exist or tell a story about a character that lived a long time ago.<\/p>\n Q: Were there things that you learned from doing \u2018The Hobbit,\u2019 \u2018Robin Hood\u2019 or \u2018The Three Musketeers\u2019 that you were able to apply to this role?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: When it comes to the fighting and all that physicality of the roles, everything has definitely informed the next job. It has helped me progress quicker through choreography.<\/p>\n Costume is a massive thing. I think costume makes you stand differently. For this film, in the billboards, you see this incredible, elaborate armor that has this chest breastplate with the dragon on it. It makes you stand differently, and it turns heads. It turned the cleaners\u2019 heads, it turned the caterers\u2019 heads, it turned makeup\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n I remember walking out of my trailer during my first day on set when I put that armor on for the first time, and only my assistant, my dresser and I had seen the costume. Then we went to a quarry, and it was cold. Mother Nature had allowed us this great atmosphere so there were no fog machines-it was all natural. I walked out through this mist, and everybody was just like: \u201cHoly sh*t! He\u2019s here. Bad Vlad\u2019s arrived.\u201d It was a really good moment. But it makes you you carry yourself differently, and fight differently, so it\u2019s a fun tool.<\/p>\n Q: Being always cast in this universe of kingdoms, swords and fantastic sci-fi movies, is it something that concerns you when it comes to your career? Also, how does it feel to star as Dracula in your first lead role in a big-budget movie?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: It\u2019s a very interesting question, because as an actor you have to be very careful you don\u2019t get typecast into a certain category. It\u2019s very easy to do. Somebody told me a couple years ago, \u201cSo, you\u2019re like the period action go-to guy?\u201d I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know, am I? Okay, that\u2019s a title I haven\u2019t got before.\u201d I get it; that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s why I\u2019ve chosen to jump out of that and do things like \u2018Fast & Furious 6,\u2019 where I played a very contemporary, dark, villain, who has a shaved head. I mixed that up. I\u2019ve just finished a movie based in the \u201870s with a new director from the UK (Ben Wheatley). It\u2019s called \u2018High-Rise,\u2019 and it\u2019s going to be a very extraordinary film.<\/p>\n So I\u2019m mixing it up; it\u2019s just that with this film, you haven\u2019t seen yet. So when it comes out, you\u2019ll see I\u2019m still challenging the path I\u2019m walking. I\u2019m taking a side step every now and again, and sometimes a back step, and I jump a couple of times. It\u2019s all about choosing those roles and challenging yourself and the audience. It\u2019s about making sure they don\u2019t get bored of what they see.<\/p>\n Dracula and Bard the Bowman (in \u2018The Hobbit\u2019) are two very different people on very different journeys. But it\u2019s all about finding the role that challenges you and doesn\u2019t make people get bored of you. LE<\/strong>: What I like about this story is you start with the human, who\u2019s a very relatable character. You have to understand, he\u2019s Vlad the Impaler and he had a very dark past. But we meet him in a very peaceful period of his reign; he\u2019s a loving father and a husband. Sarah Gadon and I, as well the film\u2019s director, Gary Shore, really wanted to make sure that that relationship felt absolutely pure, and that there was a real love there, because it triggers a lot of the things that he does after that.<\/p>\n He also fights for his only son, and it\u2019s quite a beautiful thing. I quite like that, because it draws other emotions you wouldn\u2019t necessarily think would come into a man-turning-into-the-biggest-vampire-on-the-planet storyline. But it works; it makes you question whether you like him and want to follow him, and that you\u2019re behind him when he does what he does. <\/p>\n Q: How did your background in theater enhance your experience doing this film? <\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: I\u2019ve always said that theater was where I began, so everything I do now has a bit of my theater background in it. It was my training. This film is slightly theatrical; the whole thing is a huge spectacle of a journey for one man. It was fun.<\/p>\n I had to shout to a huge crowd of warriors on quite a few days enough to command that audience, and there were moments when I did feel like I was on a stage. Commanding an audience when you\u2019re onstage is quite a feat. If you can do it and you have them in the palm of your hand-which doesn\u2019t happen all the time-you feel like you\u2019re king of the world. There were certain scenes in the film where I had to gain the respect or the fear of who I was performing to in the scene, and I my theater training helped there.<\/p>\n Q: How did you shake off this role after you finished filming the movie?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: There was a bit more than shaking it off. It was exhausting, as I was training for two months before we started shooting the principal photography. I was in New Zealand doing the pickups for the final \u2018Hobbit.\u2019 I had my trainer there, and we were training in the evenings and on the weekends for \u2018Dracula.\u2019<\/p>\n I put on 11 kilos (about 25 pounds) of weight so that when I got to Belfast, my trainer changed. Then we started to shred and change my diet so that we would get this physique that honored the warrior prince that Vlad ?epe? was.<\/p>\n Vlad was ruthless man. The scars on his back which you see in the movie came from some very vicious moments in his life. So I wanted to honor that physically and make sure that he looked the right shape.<\/p>\n It was also about the stamina. The training wasn\u2019t just about me looking good when I took my clothes off; it was also about me having the strength and the core strength to do those fight sequences because they took days to shoot. It was hard to do take after take after take when you\u2019ve got swords. They may not have been sharp, but they were heavy and metal and could cause damage. So it\u2019s about accuracy, and that\u2019s about strength. There was a lot that went into it. It was very rewarding, but so exhausting.<\/p>\n Q: Can you talk a little bit about the Samurai sword?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: The sword that I have in this film is the most beautiful weapon I\u2019ve ever used in a movie. The handle is a bronze dragon that\u2019s standing on his hind feet. His tail wraps around the hilt of the sword, and his eyes are rubies. It\u2019s beautiful, but it\u2019s perfectly weighted, so it\u2019s quite heavy and difficult to work with. My wrists actually increased from using the sword. I had to change my watch from my wrists getting bigger from fighting, because (of) the amount of pressure on the wrists.<\/p>\n But I have the sword, and it was given to me on my final day. It was inscribed by the Universal family. It was a beautiful thing and I feel very lucky to have it, but god help any burglar that tries to enter my house, that\u2019s for sure. I\u2019ve got three, so there. They\u2019re all on my wall.<\/p>\n Q: In the initial sequences when Vlad is facing the Master Vampire, where did you take your references from to express the complex feelings that Vlad was experiencing during that moment of violence?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: Well, if you stand that close to Charles Dance covered in prosthetics and teeth, and he\u2019s dribbling all over you and he\u2019s got these sharp nails poking in your cheek, it\u2019s enough to make you feel scared. He\u2019s quite a statuesque human being. He\u2019s very tall and carries himself in a very grand way. He was barefoot in that scene, and I had shoes with a heel, and he was still taller than me.<\/p>\n He has an amazing presence, and I think that\u2019s why he\u2019s still the top of his game and delivers such brilliant performances in whatever he does. But in this film, it was just great. I very rarely act against actors who are that much taller than me, so for me to feel intimidated by another actor was a really good thing. It needed to happen because he\u2019s a real threat that will last through the ages. He\u2019s not somebody that I can just kill off, and that\u2019s what\u2019s exciting about his character. If we\u2019re lucky enough to make another one, he\u2019s going to to be a real threat.<\/p>\n **SPOILER ALERT** Q: Following up about the sequel, is anything in the works to make another film?<\/p>\n LE<\/strong>: No, but we\u2019ve allowed this film to have a perfect gateway so that Dracula can go anywhere. He\u2019s immortal, and at the point where the movie finishes, we\u2019re already touching on 500 years. So we\u2019re dealing with a man who\u2019s spent a long time walking, searching in a very lonely existence throughout time. Who knows what\u2019s been through and who knows what he\u2019s going to go to. The options are endless, and I think that\u2019s where we want it to be.<\/p>\n
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\nQ: What was your approach to being romantic in the scenes (with Sarah Gad, who plays Vlad\u2019s wife, Mirena)?<\/p>\n
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