Dominic Cooper
Dominic Cooper: I am constantly doing stunt rehearsals. It’s all I seem to be doing. There’s a bit that I’ve been training to do… in fact, I just tried all my armor on that I will be wearing for the “big stunt” near the end. I call it a stunt. It’s a fight. It’s a big, big, big, big fight between [SPOILERS REDACTED]. But you do these things, and this always happens and I never learn: When you’re doing an action-based film, you spend weeks training for these fights, and then you try on this armor, and then you realize you can’t move. So then the whole thing probably has to be changed.
But it’s an incredible costume. I don’t know how much I can say, but it’s a very over-the-top but very beautiful piece of golden armor. Fully gold. And it’s got the Battle of Constantinople on the front of it and on the arms. It’s beautiful. It’s so incredible. But… I can’t move.
What’s the relationship between you and Vlad?
They have a history as kids. And my take on it is that he’s terribly envious of this boy who is pulled into his father’s palace. And I think I like the relationship to be based in envy and jealousy and resentment. And I think he saw Vlad as being a better fighter and stronger of mind, and physically, and I think his dad was always aware of this. So this is something that’s kind of ongoing. And it’s punctuated in the story itself, and it comes to a head. You’ve kind of put these extra ideas in that on my father’s deathbed, it was Vlad he chose to speak to. Because he trusted Vlad more as a warrior and as a future leader.
And it’s a very clever bit of writing they came up with. Very close to the beginning of shooting. And I loved it when I first read it. It’s about Mehmed desperately trying to understand or find out what it was that his father shared with Vlad and not himself. And he can tell that he’s being lied to when Vlad comes out with this over-the-top kind words that he knows are not true. And then, as revenge, I do to him really… in a way… what my father did, which is [SPOILERS REDACTED].
Is your character the villain, or does it make heroic sense from his point of view?
Exactly. It makes sense for him, as with any villain. A well-written villain. He can’t just be villainous for villainy’s sake. Absolutely it comes from a place of jealousy and resentment. Not that as an audience member you would care. He’s evil. And he does things that are not for the good of his country or his people. But to seek revenge. In my opinion. But it comes from a very real place. He’s an incredible warrior in this particular part of the story.
And he ruins himself. Because of letting this jealousy eat him up. He makes all the wrong decisions. Everything that chooses to do from this point ruins him. It would all be fine. He could continue to take on Europe and take on the rest of the world, but he decides that this one thing, that has been killing him since he was a child, is the one thing that he’s going to pursue. That’s his downfall.
Is it fun to play a villain? Gnash your teeth and all that?
No, it’s always fun. They’re great. And if they’re well-written, and as long as there’s a real place that you can… if not relate to, but understand where their hatred comes from, then he’s not an out-and-out villain. Then they’re believable. This person existed. The clever thing within this is that [Dracula], from his childhood, what he is capable of and what he did, he is a villain in a way. And he’s trying to cover up a past. What with the impaling of people. And it’s very poignant in one of the scenes that I try and unveil to others what he is capable of and actually how evil he is. Because I know. I know the true him that he has been trying to cover up. And yes, he’s become a good man, and yes he loves his people, and he cares for his family, but he wants to survive what my father put him through. He was a killer. A really volatile, dangerous, awful, evil killer. And I think that’s quite a clever confrontation between the two characters. You don’t have one “good guy.” It’s quite dark.
Dracula encounters supernatural characters in this film. Is your character aware of a supernatural presence?
No. There’s no belief system in the supernatural. But we become more like the audience. In that we see these strange things happening, and we have to take note of them. But no. We are of the real world. And we couldn’t possibly believe that this could be true. By the end of the film, we’re going “do you believe this guy has supernatural powers?” It’s not a world in which we exist where it’s the norm.
Do you have any supporting characters? Family members or a right-hand man?
Yes. I have one that I confide in. One that I [SPOILERS REDACTED]. So there are, but he’s not particularly pleasant to them. And they’re all, again, another way to highlight the terror that he spread amongst people. The people closest to you are very much fearful of you. The way they treat you and the way they mollycoddle you is another representation of how dangerous you are. And that really helps me, as an actor.
We had a huge scene the other day where I had all my people around me, and Mehmed comes into the tent… it’s a very long scene, very rare to get a scene that’s five or six pages long with very well-written dialogue… but it’s wonderful, because all my people are around me, and they’re very timid and threatened and worried at seeing this situation unfold. And when I reveal to them that this person who enters the tent I know very well is my oldest and dearest friend from my childhood. It’s very unsettling. Because of the way everyone around me is behaving. It’s so much fun to play off that, because you’re immediately in a position of power. And you don’t have to do anything aggressive or dangerous. In fact, the more you play against that – and the kinder you are and the softer you are – I think [the more you] terrify.
What attracted you to the project, and how did you explain that this wasn’t just another vampire film?
I keep forgetting this. I have to be reminded this. That it’s a Dracula film. For me, it was very much a film about history and about Vlad the Impaler and where that story came from. It’s a very, very different take on it, and a clever twist on the story. It’s gonna look completely epic and beautiful. They’re shooting on film. And there are some very distinctive characterizations within it. I think it’s unlike any other Dracula. I find it amazing that they’re calling it “Dracula,” because for me it felt like something very, very different.
I like the idea that they’ve chosen where he comes from, and who he was and why he came from that world, and why he was part of the Turks’ world, and what he became. I think it’s a really clever take on it. And I’m within that story, the one who gives all the exposition.
Were you able to give any vampire advice to you co-stars?
It’s quite funny. No, but there are things I overhear from others that reflect problems I’ve had dealing with fangs and prosthetics. I didn’t have them this time. I’ve had to do to prosthetics and the teeth. And the biting, and the way in which that looks good. And how painful it can be if you get it wrong. And how you can take chuck out of peoples’ faces if you do it wrong. I kept quiet. I quite like to see those things happen. I tell them afterwards: “Yeah. I could’ve told you that.”
What are you excited for people to see in this movie?
Well, it’s hard to say before. I’ve shot a few scenes, but I haven’t been around for the entire thing. I think, from reading it, and from seeing what I have seen, I think the dynamic of the relationships. Action is one thing – and if you like that, great! This is going to have plenty of it; really big dangerous brutal great set pieces and fights, they’re all going to look amazing. But if that tires you, and you want more than that, and it’s not just enough, at the heart of it, I think there’s actually a very brotherly relationship at the center. And a beautiful love story and a story about family. And a man who tries to defend his family.
It’s just got a very very… and then you have the mystical world, and the prosthetics, and the way they made those characters look is extraordinary. So there’s a combination of lots of things. But essentially, and the reason why I’m drawn to a lot of things, there has to be an intriguing story at the middle of it. It can’t just be about explosions or car races or whatever it is. There has to be a story. For me. Because that’s what I like.
Will there be an ongoing rivalry in future films?
I’ve heard before the phrase “this is the definitive end,” and then I find myself a few years down the line, there again. I think there are lots of possibilities here. As there are with everything these days. People never know where they’re going to take a story. Which I find incredibly exciting. Unless you’re dead dead. But in a film with this title, you’re never dead dead, are you?
Did you research the history of the historical Mehmed?
Yeah, I did. It’s kind of endless and fascinating, and I didn’t know – I admittedly knew very little. And all that stuff is great and you’re learning so much. How helpful it is, I’m never really quite sure. Because you’re developing or creating something that needs to function within what you’re making. Of course it’s good to have all this information to understand where he comes from and how powerful he was and how determined he was. I mean, he threw his dad off the throne. He demanded that his dad step down, and he was a much more military-capable man that his father. All that stuff’s helpful, but you have to actually create something that worls within the framework of the story.
It’d be so interesting to know… because now when you play people or do something biographical, you can watch films of them, and you know you’re getting quite close, you know when you sound like them. With this I just have no idea. Absolutely none. Which is comforting in a way, because you start from scratch and you can make it whoever you really want it to be to make it more effective. Maybe he was outwardly just chilling and horrible, and we’re giving him an element – hopefully – of charm and kindness. Was he really like that? Probably not. But we can do what we like.
Next: Sarah Gadon on the Family Values of Dracula Untold
