Luke Evans talks DRACULA UNTOLD – A one-man army of vampiric powers

With an an entire boat filled with dead sailors and Dracula movies on the way, you might think that the character is starting to feel a bit watered down. Dracula Untold however, looks like an interesting version of the tale, year zero for the good ol’ count as he battles to save his family and nation. Luke Evans spoke about the character recently, his motives, powers and crumbling humanity.

Speaking to  ScreenRant, Evans discussed how Vlad’s new powers could potentially be somewhat of a drug for the Transylvanian conqueror:

In the wrong hands yes obviously, we know that very much so in this day and age. In this film you see power given to one human being and used wrongly and you see power given to another human being, another person, used in a very sort of selfless way. I think in Vlad’s situation he does what he does from a very selfless position and point of view. He does it because he wants to save his family; his son and his wife and his people. You see other people turn into vampires in this movie.

I was trying to associate it with being addicted to some very strong drug. You see some people who deal with drug addiction in one way and some who just completely fail and never ever be able to come out of that dark place. Vlad always keeps his reasons for doing it very clear. As much as he has this urge to drink the blood of a human, he really resists as much as he can because of the love for his first wife and his family, his kid and his people.

Don’t expect Evans to wander around with absolute mastery over his new vampiric abilities, as the film will have to break him into a new life as a vampire:

He doesn’t realize the powers immediately that he has, it’s a sort of revelation as the plot goes on and his journey progresses, he becomes aware that he can do certain things and certain things happen to him that he’s like, ‘Oh wow. That’s useful’ and he actually does say “that’s useful.” So yes he has them all, cause as soon as he makes that decision and he does what he does in Caligula’s cave, he gains all of those powers but he’s very unaware of them at the beginning.

He even thinks he’s dead at one point and realizes he’s alive but nobody can see him and then he can’t be seen. He’s seeing ghosts. So it’s an interesting thing, he’s discovering these things as he goes along but the vampiric part of him is only seen in very subtle moments when he actually does go to bite, you see this incredible transformation. It’s unique to this film, it’s unique to Dracula, and it’s never been done before. He doesn’t have the fangs the whole time it’s not something that I’m talking with big fangs in my mouth the whole time.

Even though I have my own fangs. Sometimes the unseen is often more exciting and more intriguing to an audience than what you see. If you spoonfeed every visual element of some character like Dracula, which we’re so used to seeing in so many representations we’ve seen through the years. This one we’ve chosen to be very clever in when we show these moments of the vampire in him. But it is quite beautiful when it happens to him – when he goes for the kill.

There’s more in the source link, describing just how powerful Evans becomes as the film carries on. It’s an interesting read, and it’s starting to make Dracula Untold feel like an interesting film. The movie also stars Sarah Gadon and Domic Cooper. It’s out in October.

Last Updated: July 16, 2014