Anne Rice really doesn't explore vampires as hideous monsters of the night, they're ancient creatures with a heart. And they want to be loved and they want connections just like we do.
Darla [from Buffy The Vampire Slayer] wasn't Darla in the beginning, by the way. Darla was just Vampire Girl #1. But I just started adding a little bit of glee and joy into everything she did and just relied on the fact that the prosthetic does the work. And then I didn't have to be scary. The prosthetic was scary enough. I just had to smile and show off Darla's really great dental work.
Lestat and Louie feel sorry for vampires that sparkle in the sun. They would never hurt immortals who choose to spend eternity going to high school over and over again in a small town ---- anymore than they would hurt the physically disabled or the mentally challenged. My vampires possess gravitas. They can afford to be merciful.
It's cool to play a vampire and be a part of this new, hot genre.
I think vampires have gotten maybe a little bit silly in the last years where they're all wearing crushed velvet and reading poetry and making sweet love to their victims, you know, it's not really all that scary.
If you look at all the vampires in the past, they were sort of decrepit old men. Stephanie Meyers just made it for a new audience. All the vampires are now young men and she describes them as not being ugly.
I have no intention of making vampires cool. Absolutely not. They're not cool.
For me, playing a vampire isn't about the fact that they're a vampire, it's about who they are specifically.
Whom would you like to put throught a table next? The entire cast of New Moon. They're trying to portray vampires, but they look like a bunch of sissy models.
If I played a vamp I would be rejected by the audience outright.
I stopped appearing as Dracula in 1972 because in my opinion the presentation of the character had deteriorated to such an extent, particularly bringing him into the contemporary day and age, that it really no longer had any meaning.
I love the 'Underworld' movies because the vampires aren't automatically evil, yet neither are they basically humans with fangs.
The role seemed to demand that I keep myself worked up to fever pitch, so I took on the actual attributes of the horrible vampire, Dracula.
You never want to play too vampiric or generically evil, so you look for emotions or character traits that you can relate to.
It's surprisingly hard to play a vampire and feel believable. I mean, you want to be able to at least believe yourself.
