Sarah Gadon barely had chance to undo her corset after filming Belle, before she was being laced into another one for the upcoming Dracula, Untold. In the new film (also starring that really rather attractive chap Luke Evans that any Hobbit nerds - hands up, come join me - will remember from *The Desolation of Smaug), Sarah stars as Mirena, *Dracula's wife, a 15th century Queen who knew Dracula (or 'Vlad' as he likes to be called) way before he became a blood-drinking tyrant. In real-life though, Sarah is thankfully less brooding vampire WAG and is instead all smiles.
‘Our Dracula’, Sarah told us, kicking off an enviable pair of snakeskin Louboutins, ‘is an origin story about Vlad, the man behind the legend, and I am the woman behind the legend, Mirena. The film follows our love, and everything we do and sacrifice to keep our love alive.’
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All together, aw. But what else does Sarah have to say about the movie? And the vampire?
**Would you have liked the chance for Mirena to go full vampire? **
Absolutely! I wish I was a vampire! They make the vampires look so awesome in the film, I think it would have been so cool! But it wouldn’t have been quite so tragic.
What do you think draws us to the Dracula story?
Vampires provide a metaphor for us to explore themes that we are innately drawn to as humans; temptation, love, power, control, withholding, mortality. I love Bram Stoker’s book, there is such a visual aesthetic style that lends itself so well to cinema, and that’s why we’ve seen so many incarnations over the years. That’s why this film was so exciting, we got to put our contemporary visual stamp on the genre.
So what's different about your version?
I was really looking to play a romance, to be part of a romantic story, so when I screen tested with Luke I went in there and really went for it with the romance! I was so blown away by Luke, because he’s so masculine and strong and powerful, but he brought such a vulnerability and I knew we could really create something exciting. Normally in these action movies the love story is a side-bar thing, and in vampire films so often the women are repressing their sexual desires, or part of a dynamic that’s really unhealthy or about control. What I love about Mirena is that her and Vlad begin this story in love, in this pure, free, passionate state of love, and everything afterwards is about protecting that. I thought that was a really interesting take on a female character in a Dracula movie.
**Favourite version of a vampire story? **
Buffy. Is. The. Best. I grew up a huge fan of Buffy - that was my ultimate, that was a big thing for me growing up. I recently bought the box set and I my boyfriend was like ‘why did you buy Buffy?’ and I was like ‘have you not seen Buffy?! Do we need to have a Buffy marathon!’ He needs to see it. That needs to be a requirement for our relationship.
I’m also a big fan of gothic romance literature. I love gothic romance novels, one of my favourite books is Jane Eyre, and I love Mary Shelly’s Frankestein. There’s so much of the gothic feel to London.
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Are you a fan of London?
There is something incredible about this city. it’s one of my favourite cities in the world. The community here is really supportive. I was here for A Dangerous Method, for Belle, for Girls Night Out, it’s really become my home away from home.
Favourite places to go?
For eating, I love Rose’ Thai Cafe. For shopping I’d say Liberty’s or Cos. For just hanging out, if it’s a nice sunny day, going to Regents Park and just throwing a frisbee around is my ultimate thing to do. I love wandering around Hampstead Heath. There are just all these different pockets of things to do in London. I love to go to Borough market. With a friend we’d go from Angel and walk along the canal and go to Broadmoor market, which was awesome. I also went to the Tate for the first time when I was here last. Your museums here are amazing, The fact that you can go to the National Gallery for free is pretty amazing.
As a Canadian do you get on with the Brits?
Some of the best people I’ve ever worked with have been British. Gugu (Mbatha Raw) is probably one of my closest friends. I worked with Lily Cole a number of years ago and I just love her, she’s an incredible woman. My nana was British, and we watched a lot of British television and I love British films. A film I watched recently for Girls Night Out was Brief Encounters. Oh wow I love that movie! I grew up with British humour. I think Canadian humour is pretty dry there’s a lot of culture that we definitely inherit from the Brits.
Dracula, Untold is out
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.