Luke Evans Discusses Dracula Untold

He talks Dracula, physical pain and the excitement of playing a leading role.

Luke Evans on stage at MCM Comic Con (Photo: Lisa-Marie Burrows)
Luke Evans on stage at MCM Comic Con (Photo: Lisa-Marie Burrows)

“It is my first leading man role, so I got a real taste of what it is like to carry a film,” says Luke Evans with a big smile on his face.  The Welsh actor was stood on the large stage at MCM Comic Con in the Lomand Auditorium at the SECC in Glasgow.  The theatre was filled to the maximum with an eager audience waiting to see Evans and the exclusive clip, which Universal Pictures were showing from upcoming movie DRACULA UNTOLD.

“I didn’t want to do just another Dracula movie.  They have already been done –  and very, very well over the years.  My favourite is Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but what I liked about this story is that it talks about what people don’t know that much about.  That’s why I liked this refreshing, new take on a very famous story.”  He’s reconciling his experience where he was first considering taking on the role and by his own admission, he wanted to tell a part of the story which has not yet been told. “We wanted to make him a fresh man and give him a real sort of gravitas.  When you watch the film, we want you to understand the man and why he does the things he does.”

Evans plays the role of anti-hero Vlad Tepes who goes to extreme, dark measures to protect his family and people from the Ottoman Empire, “My character is very different – much younger! Much better looking!”  He jokes, but it is clear from the trailer and exclusive clip, that his character is different to other portrayals of the vampire in previous films: “It’s the beginning of Dracula, we are dealing with a very different part of the story, we are taking it 400 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”  He continues, “We start with a king; the man you see in the poster is a vampire, but the man you meet in the beginning of the film isn’t.  I tried to show raw human emotions: sacrifice, responsibility, leadership and brutality that the humans have to deal with.  I wanted to make him semi-relatable – he can’t be completely relatable as he ends up as a vampire!”

It’s clear that Evans is extraordinarily happy to have secured his first leading role in a film and his enthusiasm and love for his craft spurred him on to be more than just another person playing a vampire. “I feel very honoured to be holding that title now and to be playing this role and putting my stamp on this character, which is something I hope everybody will enjoy.  I am very proud to be part of this legendary character.”

The 35-year-old has remained a humble, grounded and simplistic individual despite having starred in big movie franchises such as THE HOBBIT and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS 6 and when filming alongside other well-known actors, he can still be flummoxed by their very presence. “The hardest part was not fluffing my lines in front of Charles Dance! Charles is fantastic in this film and he’s an amazing actor and he’s quite intimidating as you saw in the trailer.  He’s scary and really tall – I’ve never really acted with an actor who is taller than me apart from Tom Hiddleston who I have just worked with, so that was really weird.”

Evans may have thrown his heart and soul into the making of the movie, but in order to be convincing, he also put his body through the rigour of becoming a soldier. “I had to transform my physique for this film because Vlad Tepes was a very successful warrior, a fighter.  I used to go to work in the morning at 5am and work all day finishing at 6 or 7pm, then I would get picked up by my trainer and we would go to the gym for an hour and a half and then I managed to stay awake long enough to eat and then go to bed. Gary Shore [the director] asked me to do things in that, that were virtually impossible. I did that for four and a half months.  Three months in I thought ‘how am I going to carry on?”’  But carry on he did, “After it finished, I had a big kebab and chips!”

Seeking to deliver not just a powerful, but emotive performance, Evans credits his co-stars for his intensified delivery of his role. “Having people like Sarah Gadon, who plays my wife in the film, she made the whole experience very real and joyful.  We have a real chemistry and it’s just so nice.  That can always be really difficult when you have never met someone and you have to look like you have fallen in love with them, but she was so easy… Oh no, that’s going to be quoted, I know it!  I meant she’s very professional….  She’s very easy to get along with…  Very easy to fall in love with…”

When his long discussion on stage ended, the crowd were then shown the exclusive clip from Dracula Untold by Universal Pictures, which we have reviewed here

Dracula Untold hits UK cinemas on October 3rd and US cinemas on October 10th.

Shortly after, the Hollywood star spent a lot of time with more than 200 of his fans who won an opportunity to meet the actor and have a poster signed if their name was drawn as a winning ticket.   

Here is a slideshow of photos from the day:

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1 COMMENT

  1. […] Scotland’s comic con weekend also featured Hollywood actor Luke Evans, who plays Bowman in THE HOBBIT trilogy and stars in upcoming film DRACULA UNTOLD.  Media and fans were treated to a very exclusive clip by Universal Pictures from the upcoming movie, which we have reviewed and later on, the Welsh actor spent a lot of time with his fans who were lucky ticket winners to have their photo taken with the star and receive a signed poster.  You can find out what Evans talked about during his Q&A here with an exclusive photo gallery. […]

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