“My name is Claes Bang, and I’m Dracula.” Just saying that feels like trying to steal the crown jewels. It’s been a privilege. At first, I was quite skeptical. “Does the world really need another Dracula?” But then I read the script like a good novel that you just can’t put down. They have chosen to make him the main character in the story for a change. Often, Dracula is just lurking in the dark and then he eats someone and is gone again. But here we get to meet him in many more situations than before.
I’ve watched everything for the purpose of inspiration and downright theft if I came across something I could use. I had to find something within that could tally with him and resonate with me so that the character wasn’t just a costume. So that I could internalize him. His needs are strange but they are needs just like our own. He’s in many ways very vulnerable, but he’s also completely superior. He’s iconic. The man’s even got a f**king emoji! Three-year-old kids know who he is. There are a lot of expectations to him. So in that sense it can be daunting.
He doesn’t just get food and calories from people. He acquires their skills. So when he starts eating the lawyer, his English gradually improves. And he picks up all his memories. He learns everything about his victims. And I think that is a very clever invention. That results in a lot of funny and strange things in the next episodes.
[ Was it weird being naked in front of all the nuns? ] In order not to get too self-conscious and wonder what the hell I’m doing, I’m extremely focused on my work. That’s just what I’m doing. Because if I start thinking, “Here I am in a gateway in a castle without any clothes on, and it’s 2 o’clock, it’s freezing, in Slovakia, in front of 20 nuns…”, that’s just not going to work. They thought I was a bit mad because I insisted on being naked. “Just put some clothes on, Claes.” F**k no, we’ll get better footage. And we could shoot a lot more. In the end, they were happy we did it. If I’m wearing sweatpants, then we are restricted to [upper body shots]. My freedom of movement is limited by my awareness of the framing. There was freedom in saying, “F**k it, let’s just do this.” But it was stupid because it was cold and I was covered in gunk and blood. I was covered in all that, completely naked. That gave me energy that I don’t think we would have had otherwise. [x]
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