Jonny as Dracula

trufa wrote:

Jellyfish wrote:

Your first impressions about Dracula? Have you watched it?

Yes I watched in a page that share the first episode... Well I don´t know. Obviously is a ver very free adaptation of Stoker´s novel, I think that only few things. In one hand I think that it´s entertainmment and it´s OK , but in other hand I think in Jonny and his talent, and I think that is wasted in this. The product is good in costumes, art direction etc, but for me the plot isn´t good.
I hope that Jonny will choose good roles in the future. I think that he has the talent but perhaps no the luck.

I'm not impressed with the first episode too. Though it's not bad and I'll probably watch whole season. Somehow I expected more, plot is confusing and can't see how they'll unravel this mess. In a recent interviews JRM pointed out brutality and blood and sheer horror but I wasn't scared. I'll risk public lynch  but Dracula looks like a creepy perv. I like the costumes and don't mind their loose adaptation of a novel and legend but historical figure Vlad Tepes was the member of the order of the dragon and people mostly were confused. It was just pilot episode, lets wait for another and will see. And than they said that Dracula will be back to his roots, the legend revives etc. but this is not a legend, it's not much different than Twilight. Again it's not bad but people expected something else, the producers and screenwriters promised something else.

Just finished watching the first episod of Dracula. As I expected, this is not my kind of movie, the only reason for watching it is JRM. I wasn't captivated by the action, I even felt that JRM has not a chance to show his real talent here, and I would really love to see him again in movies like The Tudors or Match Point. And certainly, for me, as I learn at history in high school, he is very far from Vlad Tepes. But I will watch the next episods just for him.
And one question: is he wearing contact lens, it seems to me that I haven't seen his lovely blue eyes...

I have watched the first episode last night as well and I like the series very much. I don't know the history of Vlad Tepes, so don't know how true this is to history, but I frankly don't care. I watch a series for entertainment, not a history lesson. I will watch a documentary for that.

I think it is well-made, I think it's an interesting plot and a nice new look at The calssic Dracula story, and I don't really understand when Kyra says she thinks Jonny can't show his true talent. He is being very restrained in Dracula and that is not something we have seen a lot from him in the past, so it actually, in my view, perfectly shows his immense acting talent.

Don't know about the contacts. He might wear contacts in Dracula that are more colored perhaps. He does wear glasses as well sometimes, so he might actually often be wearing contact lenses.

Absolutly love this interview. Thanks to JRM Appreciation Group for posting this on their Tumblr. Interview appeared in The Metro, a London newspaper apparently.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers: My Dracula is all about suffering but it’s sexy, too
Thursday 31 Oct 2013

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has a reputation for being a touch intense. But when we meet to talk about his new show, Dracula, he bounds from his chair like an excited puppy, his enthusiasm spilling over into a giddy torrent of ideas surrounding the triple nature of the role he plays.

He’s intense, certainly, but it’s coupled with a still boyish charm (he’s 36), an ability to laugh at himself and an energy that’s infectious.

‘I don’t do anything half-heartedly,’ he declares. ‘When I paint, when I write music, when I write bad poetry, I do it with everything I have. I only have one life to live. Even this interview, I’ll give it everything.’

There’s a twinkle in his eye as he says this and you sense he’s heading off any difficult questions about his run-ins with the media – fisticuffs at airports, plus drink and drug rehab. When you live life at full tilt, sometimes you’re going to get bruised.

It also explains why, as an actor, Rhys Meyers is drawn to larger-than-life characters. Elvis Presley, Henry VIII in The Tudors, his breakthrough role as Steerpike in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, all these were performances that demanded to be played in a major key.

‘I experience things in an extreme way,’ he says, happily sending himself up. ‘If I feel pain, it’s great pain, the worst ever. I absolutely never do blasé. Of course, there’s good and bad in that.’

That extreme nature is being put to the test in Dracula, an imaginative spin on the classic vampire story that takes Bram Stoker’s original as just a starting point for a Victorian- era melodrama that finds Rhys Meyers tripling up as the Count, US entrepreneur Alexander Grayson and 15th-century Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler.

‘For me, Vlad is the fascinating one,’ says Rhys Meyers. ‘He’s the one I relate to. He’s a flawed character, who’s almost forgotten what it is to be human – but there is a spark that’s still there.’

Described thus, it’s a perfect part for this elusive actor – it’s a role within a role, a man playing himself.

And for those anticipating a full-blooded, soft-erotic romp – The Tudors with fangs – this Dracula is something of a surprise. It’s almost restrained, a stylish and cerebral spin on a genre that’s had its eroticism, homo and otherwise, drained dry.

Yes, there is sex in this Dracula but there’s also a surprisingly political subplot about the overthrow of ‘The Order’ – which could be just about any money-broking power-hungry elite you care to name.

Rhys Meyers revels in describing the dramatic subtext, throwing Machiavelli’s The Prince and Sun Tzu’s military classic The Art Of War into the theorising, taking time out to distance himself from materialism.

‘I don’t want an expensive car, or a helicopter or a hundred-grand Rolex or any of those things,’ he says. ‘What I do buy is art, particularly Japanese art. I think it’s because in some way I want to save it.’

He’s also keen to distance his Dracula from the over-crowded vampire competition.

‘We did not want to do a Victorian True Blood or Twilight – vampires as sex symbols has been done to death. Our vampire story is about suffering.’

Yet it’s part of the contradiction inherent in Rhys Meyers that when he talks of the actual biting bits, it starts to sound pretty sexy.

‘My Dracula only feeds on women because it’s something sexual and powerful. The feeling of your mouth on a woman’s neck is beautiful and exciting…’ Er, down boy.

He laughs when, on parting, I say his high-speed conversation has had my shorthand doing cartwheels.

‘Listen, I’m Irish. If you tell me “good morning”, I’ll give you a ten-minute conversation. If you ask me for four words, I’ll give you 16.’

He’s still talking, lilting and lyrically, as his publicist ushers him down the wood-panelled stairway of the ancient house chosen for the screening.

He’s relished his producer role on Dracula, has his heart set on directing – ‘I think that’s definitely my future’ – and listens intently when I tell him that, as fate would have it, I’m off to a dance version of Dracula that night.

‘I’d be really up for that,’ he beams with an air of a man ever open to fresh experience and inspiration. ‘I’ll call you, let’s go together.’ And for a moment, I actually think he might.

Source: metro.co.uk

Another nice onterview.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-10-31/draculas-jonathan-rhys-meyers-im-cast-as-bad-guys-because-i-look-like-one

Dracula’s Jonathan Rhys Meyers: "I’m cast as bad guys because I look like one”
There’s “something of the night” about him, says the producer of the new Sky Living drama
Share this episode

Written By
Claire Webb
11:43 AM, 31 October 2013
When Jonathan Rhys Meyers got the call to play Dracula, his heart sank. “I thought, ‘Oh please, let it be a generic cop show where I wear jeans and T-shirts.”

But of course Rhys Meyers isn’t famous for generic jeans – he’s famous for doublets, smouldering glances and steamy bedroom scenes in The Tudors, the period romp that turned Henry VIII into a hunk and the man who played him into a household name.

“I signed on for The Tudors thinking it was only going to be one season,” he says, his Irish lilt all but ironed out. “I didn’t want it to be four seasons. I was slightly horrified. By season three or four, I wasn’t happy doing it. Psychologically, I had to be 6ft 3in and I’m only 5ft 10in – and Henry’s size was a huge element of him.”

Since The Tudors, the 36-year-old actor has steered clear of TV. “Doing a series is like making four movies at once: you have many more opportunities to fall on your backside. There are days when going into work in the same studio with the same people, uttering your lines in the same costume...” His words fade out into a grimace.

It’s possible that TV has also steered clear of Rhys Meyers. Once he was touted as the next big thing – a surefire Hollywood star – but then headlines began to chronicle alcohol-fuelled lows rather than career highs: stints in rehab; two airport arrests for drunkenness; a lifetime ban from United Airlines; and he was hospitalised after overdosing on alcohol in 2011.

The second time he was arrested – in Paris in 2011 for kicking a barman who refused to serve him – his lawyer described him as “a fragile person who suffered from personal demons”.

These, too, have been documented. He was born in Dublin then raised in Cork by his mother after his parents separated when he was three. In the past he’s talked about how he stole food for his three younger brothers when his mother drank her dole money away. Expelled from school, at 16, he was spotted in a pool hall by a casting director.

The producer of Dracula confides that Rhys Meyers makes a great vampire because there’s “something of the night” about him. A double- edged compliment the actor accepts. “I’m cast as bad guys because I look like one. I can convey that sense of conflict, I suppose, because I’m a guy who lives in conflict a lot of the time. It’s not something I have to search for: that sense of looking for some sort of peace or balance – it’s evident in me regardless of what I do.”

Today he’s sober and has something of the sulky schoolboy about him. He strops in and squirms in his seat, only reluctantly removing his sunglasses. Outside, the streets of Budapest – where Dracula is being filmed – shimmer and sweat in 40 ̊C June heat. Inside, the temperature has plummeted.

Dracula has all the hallmarks of another Tudor-esque romp: drop-dead gorgeous cast, low-cut frocks, a generous helping of artistic licence. Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror story has been transplanted to Victorian London, his fanged anti-hero revamped into a sharp-suited charmer who goes by the pseudonym Alexander Grayson.

Still, Rhys Meyers takes his responsibilities seriously. He’s at pains to point out that he’s actually playing Vlad the Impaler: the infamous, real-life 15th-century Romanian warlord. “Dracula doesn’t exist. There’s only one character in this and that’s Vlad. Grayson is the face that he puts on for high society. Dracula is the inner rage.”

He decided his vampire would be partial to a whisky or two, he says, warming to his theme.

“Anybody who’s been through that amount of trauma tends to anaesthetise in some way,” he says, sounding like a man talking from experience. “And I didn’t have him drinking out of a glass: I had him drinking out of a bottle. He’s trying to self-medicate the whole time because his feelings are so extreme.”

Similarly, he chose not to cover up on screen the tattoos that dot and circle his left arm. “I wanted something almost tribal, something to remind of his 15th-century kingdom. I wanted the tattoos almost to be like battle marks.”

As he relaxes, the sulky schoolboy vanishes. Just like his three-in-one Dracula, Rhys Meyers has metamorphosed. These days he likes a quiet life, he says, painting himself as a Renaissance man: he reads, he paints, he plays the flute and guitar, he writes music and “really bad poetry”. He spends his money on his family or his collection of 16th- and 17th-century Japanese art.

Perhaps this is why he enjoys playing an “incredibly focused” Vlad rather than his alter egos Grayson or Dracula. “Vlad is the closest to who I am. I’m not Alexander Grayson. I’m not that sort of...”

Charmer?

“I’m not a charmer! I can be a charmer but it’s inauthentic.” The Cork lilt suddenly thickens. “Sometimes I can be charming if I really want to be charming. I’m a much sweeter person than I come across on camera.”

Dracula starts tonight, 9:00pm on Sky Living

Don't missunderstand me, Audrey. I love JRM for his talent, for me the best role was in MatchPoint (from a simple but ambitious boy, to a murderer). Here, somehow, it seems to me a plain character, only looking for revenge. I say it again, this is only the first episod, we will see. But, again, this is not my kind of movies. As to Vlad Tepes, when I said it seems very far to him I mean psyhically first of all, the portrait of him just appeared in front of my eyes  . In other movies it is mentioned Dracula, but I don't remember to be mentioned Vlad Tepes, maybe I am wrong. Of course it is not an historical movie but it is just my first impression about it.

I have read that apparently Bram Stoker used Vlad Tepes as inspiration for his Dracula, so it is not strange. And I understand that it's your first impression and off course it is all personal.

Second episode was much better, It's official I'm blown off.  Now I can't wait a whole week to see the next one. 

Spoiler:

Damn English I can't express my thoughts well. The way Dracula enjoys his revenge and how his face lit up when he sees Mina is interesting to watch. Your thoughts?

Hi girls! Watch second episode. I like it more than the first. I think that some relationships between some characters are good, for example between Reinfield and Grayson or with Van helsing. I´m with you Jelly about the scene that you say in your comment. I think that he express very well the feelings about Mina. In other board I read that no chemistry between Jonny and Jessica De Gouw, and I think that this is false: I think that Jonny see her like somebody pure and she has admiration for him mix with attraction. The character taht I think is more..."stupid" ( is not the word that I can use but now I can´t express) is Victoria Smurfit... at the moment .... blufff well I don´t say that she done bad but...

In other hand I´m with Kyra about the roles for Jonny... I think tht he has real talent and sometimes I think that he waste it in some productions... but well is his choice.
I´m not sure if he wear contact lenses.... but I think that perhaps yes

videos from Jonathan Ross interview... I think he was fantastic with this hair... yum!! The interview was poor in my opinion but well better a bit that nothing!

Oh I forgot! I´m seeing the american version of Dracula. I read that the british version be uncut no like the american. I think that in the scene between Jonny and Victoria in bed had some cuts..Do you know if this is true? I like to see the uncut version obviously.

Thanks Trufa for the link of the show. The interview was short, but there were funny moments, like when Jonny explains how he would have talked with those vampire teeth or like a true Irish man, with no air  Tomorow I will see episode 2.

trufa wrote:

Oh I forgot! I´m seeing the american version of Dracula. I read that the british version be uncut no like the american. I  think that in the scene between Jonny and Victoria in bed had some cuts..Do you know if this is true? I like to see the uncut version obviously.

No idea on the amount of cutting. Have only watched first ep so far and the American version as well. Might skip to the british version, if possible, but prob can't wait that long...

Two more interviews

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/jonathan-rhys-meyers-takes-bite-out-dracula

http://www.hotpress.com/Jonathan-Rhys-Meyers/music/interviews/Unforgetable-Meyers/10385162.html?new_layout=1&page_no=4&show_comments=1

Especially like the hotpress one. It's a bit different from the other interviews.

Girls (no offence to the boys, but there aren't many on here, please do feel free to respond though). How much have you seen from Dracula and what do you think of it? Would you like to see a second season?

I might as well share my own thoughts. I am downloading the NBC episodes and thus have seen eight episodes. I love the show. From the first episode, contrary to some comments i have read on internet, but the show has definitely become better with each episode. I am very curious about the final two episodes, but already hope there will be a second season.

All actors have been very excellent at their job and I have seen them grow in their roles. I wonder if any of the key players (Renfield, Lady Jayne, Mina, Lucy, Harker, Van Helsing) ate going to die in the coming episodes or that they will stay alive. Dracula will not be permanently killed as that would end the series and won't leave space for a second season. I actually think Mina will stay alive as well and that The Order Dragon will be defeated or at least weakened severely. Well, we'll see what happens.

But am curious to hear your thoughts as well.

I just saw the last two episodes of Dracula. And my o my, they should really make a second seaon now! They can't stop. It is simply not possible, it would be cruel!

As I don't know how much everyone has seen, I will not say much else, but I loved it. Yet there are so many openings for a second season and some lose ends as well.

On another note. A while ago there was a story in the press about Jonny's salary for Dracula being withheld until he finished filming as producers might have been concerned considering his drinking past. I wonder if it is true.

One part Of the story I didn't and don't believe is that Jonny would have had a meltdown (their words, not mine). Just terrible the way the press is treating famous people sometimes! How can you use words like meltdown!

Of course the magazine say that there were sources saying that. Clearly, as always while not stating the source by name. So, either all was made up, or parts of ot are true, but the sources don't know everything, or the magazine juiced it up to make it more interesting (in their opinion and unfortunately there are many people interested in such juicy news).

Hi!
Also I saw Dracula and I hope that a second season will be possible.
I think that every episode was better that previous and the end is very open with many options to continue. I don´t know if everybody here see all the serie but I´m intriguing about Renfield( I love this character) and Lady Jayne... I hope that the writers write good options.
For me the wardrobe, design etc. of series increased in all chapters, better week a week.
Love the performances in general and the plot is good.

In other hand Audrey also I read about the money of Jonny but I don´t believe it because Jonny is the producer of the show so the money depends of him isn´t it?

I saw the last episode too.  
Van Helsing turned out a real monster, I hated him with passion. I think that next season, If they decide to do a next season, will revolve around the hostility between Van Helsing and Dracula. Harker will be manipulated once again by someone else and

Spoiler:

but did he? A couple of episodes ago Mina stole few bottles of blood and serum.  Something tells me that Dracula will walk in the sun again. Maybe I'm wrong but it's just my opinion.  

Two interviews. One with Nonzo Anozi and one with Jessic de Gouw.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/news/a549467/dracula-star-on-season-2-nbc-keep-their-cards-close-to-their-chest.html

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/tv/jessica-de-gouw-exclusive-interview-dracula-411195.html#ixzz2scKpJP65

And an interview with Jonny.

by Daniel Falconer | 3 February 2014

Taking on the role as one of the most famous villains in the world couldn't be an easy task for anybody, and so when Jonathan Rhys Meyers decided to step into the cape of Dracula, nobody knew what to expect.

Here, Jonathan discusses his role on the show, the differences that people may spot when comparing Dracula to the original 1974 story and the central plot of the Sky Atlantic series.


What is this re-imagined version of Dracula and how does it differ from the Bram Stoker's original in 1974?

We took the blueprints that Bram Stoker made for it, set it at the same time - Victorian England - but we changed some of the characters around, and changed the nature of their position in the world around. Dracula in this, he wants revenge, revenge against the Ordo Draco, which is this secret society that did him wrong several hundred years ago. His anger and his fury has been building up ever since.

Who are Vlad Tepes, Alexander Grayson and Dracula?

Vlad Țepeș, the Romanian warlord, is the core character. For his cover in our story, in the world of commerce, he plays Alexander Grayson, a young European-American businessmen. They are the same person. Alexander Grayson is the façade that he's using for the world of commerce. Dracula does not exist; Dracula is the monster. Vlad Țepeș and Alexander Grayson exist.

How are the themes of this story and the characters relatable to a global audience?

I think revenge, pain, love and loss are universal themes. It is extraordinary how setting something in a historical basis can make people turn on their imaginations, allow them to branch out their ideas and to accept worlds that they would not normally accept. I think using beautiful sets and putting people out of their contemporary comfort zone is a way of allowing them to embrace the fantasticness of what is happening; the brutality but also the beauty. It is easier to digest in a historical setting.

Each character changes when Alexander Grayson comes into their lives. How does Grayson change when the other characters enter into his life?

He meets Mina Murray (Jessica De Gouw) and this is not something that pleases him. She reminds him of his wife, Ilona Szilágyi. But he sees her almost in a protective, paternal way, not lustful. The image of her distracts him from his main purpose which is revenge, to kill a lot of people who need to be killed. Rich, powerful men who have manipulated the world for their own gains. In one way he is slightly vigilante but he is no hero. He is the bad guy. He does great things but terrible, terrible things too. Hopefully the audience will be amused and intrigued but what he does is pretty diabolical. Jonathan Harker (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is the hero of the piece. Not Vlad Țepeș.

What is the overall look, feel and tone of the series?

It is very, very lush and very, very beautiful. It is using rich colours and certain types of camera lenses that Chris Segear (Cinematographer) has developed to give it a tonal base which is almost Victorian graphic novel but at the same time contains the beauty and majesty of Downton Abbey or Boardwalk Empire. It has these beautiful tonal images depending on what emotional strain that the scene is reading at the time.

What is Dracula?

He is a manifestation of pain and loss. He is a tempest. It is what happens when you break somebody to that extent, when you completely demolish their spirit, when you completely demolish their environment and take away those things that they love. Not only taking away his wife and taking away his kingdom, taking away his power, taking away his life but not allowing him the peace of death. It is the ultimate cruelty. It is torture on an epic level – which is why he waits so long for revenge. It is a dish best served cold. and why he waits so long is revenge is a dish best served cold.

How does Alexander Grayson entrap Jonathan Harker (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and bring him into his world.

Jonathan Harker's an ambitious man who needs money. He is impetuous, he is young, he is inexperienced. His immaturity makes him gullible and therefore he can be manipulated - for now. His character has to change as the season goes on because he is going to come up against probably the most difficult thing he's ever come up against in his life. Vlad Țepeș does not hate him. He pities him in a way and he is envious. Not of Mina Murray (Jessica De Gouw); but of Jonathan Harker’s ability to feel love at all. His ability to have that thing.

What is the relationship between Alexander Grayson and Renfield (Nonso Anozie)?

In the original, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974), Renfield is the lawyer that goes to Transylvania, and he ends up going mad because Dracula gets into his head. For our Renfield, he's also a lawyer but he's a lawyer who Vlad meets while he is travelling America and making his fortune. He helps him out of a situation so Renfield in a way feels indebted to him. They have a very, very strong bond and connection. There is only one person in the entire cast that is closest to equal with Dracula and that's Renfield. He does not work for Vlad Țepeș, he is his right hand man and he's the only one who Vlad listens to.

Could you tell us a bit about Van Helsing’s (Thomas Kretschmann) role in this version?

Van Helsing is a bitter doctor and professor, whose family were murdered by the Ordo Draco. He brings Vlad Țepeș back to life, back to the world. They make a deal - he makes a deal with the devil, essentially. That deal is to destroy the Ordo Draco but in so doing Van Helsing knows that he will be destroyed himself.


The first season of hit series Dracula is to be released on DVD on February 10.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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Read more: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/tv/jonathan-rhys-meyers-exclusive-interview-dracula-407955.html#ixzz2sevPFf5E

Another interview with Nonsi Anozie.

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/movies/nonso-anozie-discusses-dracula-418627.html

by Helen Earnshaw | 11 February 2014


Nonso Anozie

Nonso Anozie returns to the small screen for a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic tale of Dracula, in which he takes on the role of Renfield.

We caught up with the actor to chat about the new show, delivering a new take on the character of Renfield, and what lies ahead.

- The first season of Dracula is heading to DVD, so can you tell me a little bit about the series for those who may not have seen it yet?

Dracula is a Sky Movies and NBC’s retelling of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula story. Unlike the original story, you are rooting for Dracula to get what he wants. Dracula is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and he does a fantastic job in playing him that way as a lot of people are on his side: I think that is what they intended when they embarked on the series.

I play Renfield, his loyal right-hand man. Together they plot and scheme about how they can bring down the Order of the Dragon; they are an organisation who actually created Dracula and cursed him to become a vampire hundreds of years ago.

- We have seen the story of Dracula told in a whole host of different forms over the years, but what was it about this interpretation that interested you? And how perhaps does it different to what has come before?

I always like when people do a different version of something. I was really intrigued by the fact that Renfield wasn’t the bug eating and insane maniac in the corner; that would also have been fascinating to play. I think it was just interesting that they have gone in for something different in each character.

You always have the archetypical characters such as Dracula, Harker and Van Helsing. Even Van Helsing is different this time around, as he is a comrade of Dracula; which is totally the opposite in the original as Van Helsing is a famous vampire hunter.

Therefore, I thought that was a great thing to go for something different and do something different in this version. That is what really attracted me to the show.

- You take on the role of Renfield in the series, so can you tell us a bit about the character and how we are going to see him develop throughout the series? As you say, he is completely different to the character that Bram Stoker created.

Renfield is a cool, calm and collected lawyer. He is a lawyer by trade but he is Grayson’s right hand man. Many people will wonder why they are so close together, but I have described their relationship as a myna bird and a crocodile; the myna bird perches on the teeth of the crocodile and picks the teeth clean. Therefore, the crocodile gets its teeth clean and the myna bird gets a full belly.

There is always the danger that the crocodile could snap his teeth shut, and this is what their relationship is like. They are happy to live with this relationship because they do need each other. It is not only a fascinating thing to watch, but to play.

You will see Renfield develop more and more throughout the series and prove himself as a loyal friend and not just a servant to Grayson/Dracula. I think that many people have responded to the friendship and the loyalty that we see from this character.

People want Dracula to get what he wants, and that was the most difficult thing because we were embarking on a series where Dracula is the good guy or the anti-hero. My character has been described in a series of different ways; the one that I have had most recently is ‘sexual chocolate’. That made me blush. (laughs)

- This series sees you work very closely with Jonathan Rhys Myers as he plays Grayson, so how did you find working with him?

I have loved working with him. He is one of those actors that really does put in the hard work. He works so hard before we start shooting, and so when he comes to set he will know everything about vampires, the genre, and will build the character from the ground up.

I love it when you get to work with someone who has done that much work on a character because I like to think that I work hard as well. You can play at such a high level and you have so many options because you understand the script and the character on the level that gives you the freedom to do that.

- That does lead me into my next question. I was wondering what sort of research and reading you did as you were preparing for this role? Do you look at other performances and works?

I didn’t want to watch other people’s performances of Renfield because I thought it would influence me; I learnt that when I played Othello. I didn’t want other people’s version of Othello because I would have ended up doing an impression of that. I just wanted to take what I had in the script and create the character myself.

The research that I did do looked at black people in the 1800’s in London and in North America; particularly well educated black people and people who were free. I looked at people who were lawyers, engineers and people who worked in those kinds of fields.

I tried to find photographs to see how they dressed, and that gave me some idea of the clothes that he would wear; that is why I went for the three-piece suit. He is a bit of a dandy and he loves a bit of colour and flair in his suit. It was great building the character.

That was really the research, him as a black man and an educated man in this country and America. Other than that, it was more about my imagination and inspiration in the moment; I love improvising.

I also then build physical aspects of the character, such as how he used his face, how much he smiles and laughs, and if he has a sense of humour. I considered all of these things when building a character.

- Throughout your career, we have seen you move between TV and film, how do the two mediums compare? How easy is it to jump between the two?

When I first started out in 2002, in America it was considered a bad thing to do TV if you wanted to go into film. Now, there is so much money going into TV that it is almost like working on the same thing. When I first started out in television, you had one camera and a couple of people sitting around; I did lots of TV over here such as Prime Suspect.

It has developed so much, the budgets are huge and so you have two or three cameras; it is just like working on a film set. You still take more time in film, to shoot one page then you do in TV; television just has a faster takeover because they need to get it out in the same year that they film it.

I just finished filming Cinderella before Christmas for Walt Disney, and that is not coming out until 2015; that shows you the kind of time that they have to create something.

With TV, you film it and then it starts airing only a couple of months down the line. The quality of work is getting closer and closer. I really do love working in both

- Finally, what is next for you?

I am just about to start working with Jim Broadbent and Rafe Spall up in Leeds on a British Christmas family movie called Get Santa. It is directed by Chris Smith and will be out at Christmas.

Dracula: Season 1 DVD is out now.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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Thank you for the lovely interview. I think Nonso made an excelent job portraying Renfield. They were all great, I suppose.

It seems that Jonny had again drinking problems, during filming for Dracula.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2506994/Jonathan-Rhys-Meyers-Dracula-salary-withheld-NBC-addiction-concerns.html

I read that too, but I remember reading an interview to a NBC spokesman saying that those allegations were false and he was sober the whole time. I'll try to find the article when I have the chance.