This weekend I got to interview the cast of Belle by phone out of their New York press junket. We’ll bring you all the interviews this week as the film opens, but when I interviewed Sarah Gadon, I asked her about her role in the Dracula prequel Dracula Untold starring Luke Evans. I was a little surprised by her description of the film.
“It’s an action film but it’s also really a fantasy film,” Gadon said. “I’d say it’s more of a family fantasy film.”
Bram Stoker’s Dracula being a violent and sexual novel, and in many of its film adaptations, I did not imagine Dracula to be a family man. “It’s about a family as well,” Gadon continued. “It’s going to be a PG-13 film and it is more about the family than it is about sexual angst.”
Since Dracula Untold comes long before Mina Harker, Gadon plays a character named Mirena. “It’s about their undying love, so I play opposite Luke Evans,” she said. “It was so much fun to do. Aesthetically it’s such a beautiful film. Ngila Dickson did all of our costumes and she was absolutely incredible.”
In our interview for Belle, Gadon also touched on her role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, also opening this weekend, and the upcoming David Cronenberg film Maps to the Stars. We’ll have more on Dracula Untold after we figure out how to turn into a sexual mist.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.