I've been offered quite a few network shows, over the past couple of years, and always turned them down because I never wanted the commitment. The way that it works in America, you do a pilot and then you wait, and I just thought that wasn't really what I was interested in doing, in that moment.
There are so many sitcoms. So, when you get to be a part of something that feels exciting to you, you just want to be a part of it.
I haven't ever seen a period drama that has a fantasy element to it, that's set in London, that's as lavish as it is, and that's made for American TV.
You work with seasoned actors, and sometimes you realize that they phone it in.
As the show [Dracula] goes on,Jonathan Harker gets darker and darker, and further into that side of it all. All of the worlds end up colliding and meshing together.
When I read the script, I said to one of the producers, "I know you probably want Jonathan Harker really fluffy, but I'm not gonna do that. It needs to be a mask. There needs to be a duel between Harker and Dracula."
Everyone wants to see someone shoot someone in the head.
I'm perfectly honest, I've never seen Twilight, I've never seen The Vampire Diaries, and I've never seen True Blood, or anything like that.
It was just hilarious how my first reaction was, "Oh, no, it's another vampire show. I'm not interested." And then, I read the script and thought it was brilliant.
I think it's very rare, as an actor, that you get to a script, or an idea of a script, and you go, "Oh, I just have to do that!" It fell into place very quickly.
Vampires have been romanticized, and this is bringing it right back to being vampiric. I think there's something sexy and raw about that.
We read the [Dracula] scripts, but Jess [De Gouw] and I are completely taken out of the hunts and anything with Van Helsing. We're just living our lives, as our characters.
I rarely watch TV, and in the past two years, I've done three TV shows. It's quite interesting.
On network, you have limitations for how raunchy it can get and how violent it can get.
I went to a French school, so we didn't study Bram Stoker there. I just thought it was a genius thing.
Dracula isn't just another vampire show. It's something entirely different that I personally feel I've never seen on American TV before.
I think it's a blessing that the show [Dracula] is on a network because it forces everyone to use their imaginations and be creative. The power of suggestion comes back. So, in the sex scenes, no one is ever fully naked, but I feel the suggestion is so much sexier.
Nowadays, everything is so gratuitous. The violence is suggested, and it's much more impactful than showing everything.
