Having just come off Antiviral, Enemy and Belle, Dracula Untold was a big one for Sarah Gadon.  She was on the hunt for a love story and while that isnât what one might expect from a Dracula film, thatâs exactly what was at the heart of this one â the romance between Luke Evansâ Vlad and Gadonâs Mirena, and the lengths they go to to keep their family together.While talking to Gadon on Dracula Untoldâs Belfast, Ireland set, she explained how Mirena serves as a moral compass of sorts for Vlad, revealed how she avoided wearing corsets, discussed her connection with her on-screen son, Art Parkinson, talked about working with her âbaby Spielbergâ director, Gary Shore, and loads more. Hit the jump to check it all out.Click here to check out the trailer for Dracula Untold.Question: Weâve all been pooling our notes to find out what we could about your character and weâve realized we know basically nothing, so could you tell us a little bit about the character youâre playing?SARAH GADON: Yeah, sure.  In broad strokes, sheâs the matriarch of the film.  Sheâs the princess, sheâs Vladâs wife.  A lot of the film is centered around the family unit and I guess the major themes of the film are the sacrifices that we make for our families and keeping our families together and so a lot of the film centers around her relationship with Vlad and their relationship as a family, so thatâs kind of her in broad strokes.Do you know if she was based on a historical character?GADON: No, I donât.  I donât think she was, but I will say she does kind of act as the moral compass for the film and she does act as the moral compass for Vlad, so thereâs that, too. How does her relationship with Vlad change between the Vlad he was and the Vlad he becomes?GADON: The way that I try and look at it is in very real terms.  If youâve ever had anyone in your life who has been struggling with something, struggling with addiction or struggling with anything, and itâs about the resilience of love and how much youâre willing to struggle with somebody to preserve your relationship and to try to preserve them as a person.  And I think thatâs really important, and I think thatâs what I was so drawn to in regards to this script.  I was really looking to do a love story and I wanted to tell a love story.  This film is Dracula, but at its core really is this beautiful, romantic, classic, love story.  And so I think that everything that Vlad and Mirena go through as a couple obviously culminates and reaches its climax at the end of the film, but itâs about the choices you make in a relationship to preserve it and to preserve yourself. You said that your character is more or less the moral compass, but there must be a point in the film, probably not far from what weâre looking at now, where she starts to realize that heâs making moral choices that donât involve her anymore.GADON: Yeah, that would generally be the crux of a good story.  Yes, there is that point.  [Laughs] I canât really reveal to you at what point in the plot that happens.  That would ruin the story, but yeah, the stakes are high between the two of them.You seem to have an affinity for genre storytelling working with Brandon and David Cronenberg on Antiviral and Cosmopolis.  Is this coming from somewhere or did you just find what you said here, a love story that happened to be wrapped in this genre shell?GADON: Yeah, itâs interesting that you say genre because I would say I have an affinity to working with auteur directors and I guess maybe that seems to be the best arena that they can fully express a singular vision is in a genre.  I worked with Mary Harron; I donât know if sheâs considered a genre director? Absolutely.GADON: Amma Asante recently, Denis Villeneuve and really more strong, I guess, auteur directors and thatâs certainly what Iâm drawn to when I look for a project.  Thatâs pretty much number one on the list and that was certainly the case for this project.  When I sat down for my meeting with Gary, I really didnât know much about the script.  I knew about the story in broad strokes, but I didnât know a lot beyond that, and I sat down with him and he was just so passionate about his work and about the kind of film that he wanted to make and I was really drawn to that kind of energy, and so I thought, âYeah, sure!  I want to make this kidâs first movie, for sure!â  Heâs like a baby Spielberg.  Heâs got all this kind of youthful zest and zeal for romance and love, and itâs like really kind of early Spielberg stuff and I was like, âOkay, yeah, I like this.â  And it aligned with things that Iâd been seeking to do, which was maybe a love story, so yeah, they kind of collided. Is there anything youâve seen him do thatâs taken you by surprise, maybe a technique youâve never seen used before?GADON: The kinds of films that Iâm used to doing are independent films.  Theyâre very small character driven pieces and there isnât as much spectacle involved.  And this is the first kind of film that Iâve done that has had big, grand spectacle so I guess for me, I donât know if thereâs a technique that heâs using, but I certainly think having to coordinate everything technically is something very different for me.  Having to wait and be able to create all these intricate camera movements and then coincide that with all this elaborate choreography, all of that is very new and itâs a very different way for me to work.  But then when I go behind the monitor and I look at what heâs actually shooting and itâs just beautiful, then it kind of brings me back and I realize what Iâm doing.Can you describe what the tone of this picture is?  Iâve been trying to suss that out all day.  Is it a romance?  Is it more an adventure romance or does it skew horror?GADON: I think what itâs being called is a monster film.  Thatâs a really interesting thing because my perspective of the film would be so different from everybody elseâs perspective.  I spent a lot of time with Gary and Luke in rehearsals and we were just working on the one-on-one connection and love, but then sometimes when I see the other things happening I think, âOh yeah, itâs a full on fight film and war film!â  [Laughs] I think it kind of has a balance of all of those things.  At its core, I think itâs a family film.  I think itâs a film that is accessible to families because itâs really, in my opinion, about strong family values, and I think thatâs what Hollywood does so well.  Itâs really interesting to see.  Itâs so different for me.  Iâm kind of refreshed.Was the Dracula mythology and legend behind it something that was attractive to you?GADON: Not at all.  No.How do you feel about that then because when people see Dracula, theyâre not initially going to be thinking this is a love story?GADON: Yeah, exactly, and I think thatâs what it was.  I think I was, if anything, kind of deterred by that vampire element of it or the Dracula element of it, but then speaking with Gary and especially just going back to even our initial meeting, we met in this place in LA and we sat down beside Francis Ford Coppola in our meeting, which was so weird.  We were kind of just like, âNice to meet you.  [Whispering] Thatâs Francis Ford Coppola!â  And yeah, he showed me, he had a lot of visual imagery with him and he showed me that he really wanted to make a timeless love story and that, to me, was refreshing because Dracula and vampire stories are always about sexual repression and female sexuality and a lot of things and it seemed to me at the time like such a different take on the material. That part was really refreshing. How much fighting does Mirena see in this movie?  Are you more passive in that sense?GADON: No, sheâs certainly not passive.  Iâm not a warrior, so thereâs not that element, but I certainly stand up for what I believe in and I get to, you know, muscle around a little.Whatâs your favorite scene in the movie?GADON: Itâs tough to say.  When I read the script, I was really drawn to all the Caligula stuff.  I donât know if youâve read the script.  Probably not, but all of the Caligula stuff is really interesting because itâs very blatant about identity and choice, and that kind of stuff was very interesting to me.  My favorite stuff that weâve shot is - I donât know if I can say all of this.  Okay, I know that my favorite stuff that we shot we did on Divis Mountain, which if youâre not familiar with Ireland is this big mountain in Ireland, and itâs quite a dramatic scene involving myself and Ingeras and Vlad.  We did all this coverage.  We shot over three days and then at the very end, Gary did this crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, wide, wide, wide shot and we were like this big in the frame, it was totally <silhouetted, the sky was incredible, we were on this fricking mountain and it was like some weird Visconti, Gone with the Wind meets Hollywood film.  It was just so cool, and when I saw that, it was on the third day of shooting, I was like, phew!  [Laughs] I did one of those.  So that was pretty cool.Is there anything coming up that you think will top that for you?  Any scenes that are coming up with you in it that youâre really looking forward to it? GADON: Yeah, my final scenes in the film are very emotionally charged and itâs supposed to be set on a tower, but weâve built it on a soundstage.  The lighting in this film is just standout.  Itâs just amazing.  And thereâs going to be a lot of play between light and dark and the shadows, and Vlad being able to go into the sun and then not, and itâs gonna be a very interesting play with light and Iâm really excited about that because it read beautifully on the page and then after seeing [cinematographer] John [Schwartzman]âs work, I know itâs gonna be stunning. Whatâs your relationship like with your cinematic son and has he given you any insight into whatâs coming up in Game of Thrones that we should know about?GADON: No, he hasnât!  Itâs weird because I really feel like we look alike.  I feel like we look related and so itâs weird to look at something that you feel looks like you.  Itâs kind of a bizarre feeling that I assume parents would probably have when they look at a human and they realize that they created that human.  When I look at him, sometimes I feel like thereâs such a strong resemblance, I kind of go with that and play off of that feeling and that amazement because the connection between the three of us is so crucial to the film, so that has been great.  And then, I like working with children.  I think they have a very interesting energy.  Theyâre so solid, theyâre very present, theyâre very up in their eyes, theyâre very aware and they remind you to stay playful and to stay present.Are the costumes kind of simple?  What youâre wearing now is much simpler than I was anticipating.  You get a movie like this and usually someoneâs decked out with crazy jewels and things.GADON: You should have been here yesterday.  [Laughs] Itâs interesting because when I started doing the film, I had just done a period film in London called Belle and we were in corsets for the entire time.  Thereâs this funny thing in British equity called âcontinuous daysâ where you shoot without lunch, but your day is an hour shorter, but youâre still shooting constantly and you donât get a break to eat and itâs bananas.  They donât have that in North America.  And so we did this film and we were in corsets shooting continuous days so when I started this, I was just like, âListen, I donât want to be in a corset.  Weâre not historically grounded here.  Letâs be real.  I donât need to wear a corset.â  And so Ngila [Dickson] whoâs amazing and designed these dresses around that idea and itâs been fantastic.  You can breathe and move and eat, but other than that, her silhouettes are very simple.  Her fabric choices are very interesting.  They read very different in person than they do on camera.  All the costumes are very different, so what youâre seeing this is what we call a âday glam,â day glam casual in the castle, but there are other costumes that are very, very intricate and in fact, I was wearing this crown yesterday made of all pearls and it looks like lace on my head, and it kind of comes down like this.  Itâs so delicate, but sharp and it kind of started to cut my head a little bit if you can see.You were talking about sacrifice and tough choices.  Does your character have to make them as well or were you just referring to what Dracula goes through?GADON: Yeah, my character definitely has to.  I think Mirena, Vlad and Ingeras all have their own choices to make and itâs really interesting because, the way I like to think about it is, when you are young, you form all of your ideas about the world and you have all these kind of principles and then you grow up and those principles are tested and you have to decide whether or not you can actually realistically live your life by them.  And thatâs what I think the film touches on and plays with.  Thatâs the kind of really interesting gray area that is the very cool thing about this film. Anyway, so my character yeah, definitely has to make a tough choice.
For more from my Dracula Untold set visit:
- Over 50 Things to Know About Luke Evansâ Take on Dracula from our DRACULA UNTOLD Set Visit
- Luke Evans Talks Vampire Powers, Draculaâs Fangs, His Own Fangs, Vlad the Impaler, Months of Prep, Intense Training and More on the Set of DRACULA UNTOLD
- Dominic Cooper Talks Playing the Villain, Vlad & Mehmetâs Rivalry, Their Shared Darkness, Heavy Armor and More on the Set of DRACULA UNTOLD
- 4 New DRACULA UNTOLD Images Featuring Luke Evans as Vlad/Dracula