Ahead of its Home Entertainment release on Australia this Thursday, we caught up with actress Sarah Gadon to talk about playing Mirena in last year’s Dracula Untold. She discusses her thoughts on the film, working with director Gary Shore and the history of Dracula. She also reflects on working with the great David Cronenberg over the years and looks ahead to her upcoming projects.
What was it about this story that appealed to you?
I wanted to be part of a romance. The director, Gary Shore, said that the love story is central to the film. Usually in the middle of these epic action-adventure films the love story is the secondary thing. Then when I screen-tested with Luke Evans, I knew right away that he had the presence. He is a very strong and masculine character in his physicality but he brought such a sensitivity and tenderness to our love scenes that I knew I would be able to create something special with him. Normally in Dracula films the women are suppressing their sexuality or are caught up in the power dynamics of a tyrannical male villain, and what I thought was so different about our film was that Vlad and Mirena begin the film in love. It is this pure, passionate, equal love and they spend the rest of the film making decisions and sacrifices to protect that love. I thought that was kind of different and cool.
You have an interest in Gothic fiction anyway, right?
Yes, I am a huge fan of Gothic fiction and Gothic romance. I was a fan of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and I love the way that the book is written; it is so highly stylised. There is so much visual imagery in the book that it lends itself well to cinema. And I think that it is cool to be able to put a contemporary stamp on the film. It is a timeless, classic story and that is why we revisit it so many times and that is why vampires have been so popular in pop culture — because they provide this vessel for us to explore human ideas like passion, temptation, love, desire, immortality and the things that draw us to the Gothic.
Did you study the subject, at school or at college?
One of my minors in college was English Literature and I took a course on Gothic novels. One of my favourite books of all times is Jane Eyre (1847) and I love Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and I love Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). I love that kind of writing. I always have. I have definitely enjoyed the film incarnations, too. I grew up on Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992); that was an important film to me when I was growing up. And I think our film really pays homage to that film from the beginning.
Did you enjoy Gary Shore’s huge close-ups and the epic widescreen shots?
I work a lot in both digital and in film. It is funny, a lot of the films that I have shot recently have been digital films and it’s changed filmmaking so when you go back to shoot something like 35mm anamorphic film for Dracula Untold (2014), it takes a lot longer. You have to reload and the focus is so different. It is a different way of acting, too. You have to readjust to it. I think there are benefits to film and to digital. For example, when I shot Enemy (2013) with Denis Villeneuve, we did not have to hit a mark the entire time that we filmed so there is a naturalism that eventually goes into your performance. There are things that you do not have to think about when you are working with a digital camera. That being said, I love the look of film. There is something so amazing about the look of film. It is an honour for me to work in film, especially because it is becoming more and more rare and more and more expensive to shoot.
How did you find Gary Shore (Director) — you were both making your first studio picture with Dracula Untold (2014)?
One of the things that attracted me to the project was his passion and energy for the film. He had this real excitement about making his first film and I was really drawn to that. I thought, ‘I want to be a part of this guy’s first feature film. I think it is going to be special.’ At the same time, when you make a film everybody comes with different levels of experience. I have made a lot of films before but this is the first studio film that I have ever done and it is a very different way of filmmaking. So there was a learning curve that I think we were all on. We got to experience everything together, but in terms of working with Gary I know that Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, Catch Me If You Can) is a really big influence for him. Before I made the movie I spent a lot of time watching old Spielberg films, especially, because the banter between men and women is the same type of feeling that Gary wanted me and Luke to have. And while we were working together his visual aesthetic I felt was very Spielberg-esque.
Which scenes did you enjoy the most when you watched the movie?
I loved watching the fall. I thought the fall was amazing. It was one of the moments that got to me, emotionally, when I was watching it. It was so different from when we shot it because that was one of the major blue screen shots for me. They had constructed this giant mechanical spatula that I was lying on and I was moved against this blue screen with lots of wind machines. And the visual effects team on our film was so great. They showed us a mock up of everything they were doing so we knew where we were going with the scene. They were very communicative and so for me to see that scene come together afterwards, with the visual effects, was really amazing. It was for me one of those great collaborative experiences of filmmaking where you give over your performance and somebody takes it and they make it into something else. It was really thrilling to watch that scene.
Did you shoot many scenes that did not make the movie but which might appear on the DVD or Blu-ray release?
We changed some at the beginning, some in the middle and some from the end. We had originally shot an opening scene in a garden, which did not make it into the film. It was very different, tonally, from the finished film, which I think is why they changed it. Then of course at the end of the movie, the epilogue, they added in our reshoot. That did not even exist in the original script. That is kind of how filmmaking is. My boyfriend is an editor so you get to see how things change so much in the edit, and how performances are built and how stories are changed.
Did you form a close bond with Art Parkinson, who plays your son?
Yes. I started acting when I was young too. I started doing episodic television when I was ten years old, and so whenever I get an opportunity to work with a young performer I have a lot of respect for them and what goes into their work and their process. It is so interesting because often kids are asked to act like adults on set, but I think the crew and cast don’t realize that for the child it is their playtime — because they have spent the rest of the day in tutoring! I have a great respect for the child performer and I think that Gary was really great with Art too, making him feel part of the team.
Looking at your broader career, you have made three films with David Cronenberg now. What is it that makes yours such a special relationship?
I just think that David Cronenberg (A History of Violence 2005, Scanners 1981, The Fly 1986) is a genius. I think that he is one of a handful of true auteur filmmakers who can make movies from their perspective without having to compromise their vision. And that is amazing because the way that films are financed these days and the way that films are made, it is very difficult for someone to say, ‘I am making a film this way,’ and to be uncompromising and unrelenting in their vision. I do love that about David. Also, he is so specific and so surgical with his filmmaking. Every time I get one of his scripts it is like this huge gift because there are so many layers to it and the material is so dense with imagery and meaning and he is so intelligent. I am just fascinated by his work and I am a fan of his as well as a collaborator.
You, personally, have some interesting films in the pipeline, including a role as a young Queen Elizabeth in Girls’ Night Out (2015)…
I play Princess Elizabeth and that was really fun. I am a big fan of Roman Holiday (1953) and our film has a very Roman Holiday (1953) feel to it. It has Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth on VE night celebrating with the people. And for me it is a very personal film because my Nanna was in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and my Granddad was in the British Navy and they both were in Trafalgar Square on VE night celebrating with the people. So when we were able to shoot that scene in Trafalgar Square it was like coming full circle. It was very emotional for me, actually, because they have both passed away since then. To be able to tell that story and be a part of that moment in time is surreal and also great.
And there is a royal theme in The Girl King (2015), too…
Yes. I shot that film with Mika Kaurismäki (Zombie and The Ghost Train, Three Wise Men) as the director. It is about Queen Kristina [of Sweden] and the relationship and the love affair she had with her lady in waiting, Ebbe Sparre. It was amazing to be a part of that as well because Mika Kaurismäki is an amazing filmmaker but also Queen Kristina I knew very little about before I signed on for the project. I learned so much. She was an incredible woman and her story is incredible so I am really excited to share that with people.
Dracula Untold is released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Australia on Thursday, March 12th.
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