By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Dan Stevens is having a big year in the genre. He has already been seen as a giant ape’s dentist in GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE and has been winning raves for his frighteningly eccentric turn in Tilman Singer’s CUCKOO, coming in August. Right now, he’s got one of the key roles in ABIGAIL, the vampire/kidnapping film that he discusses here with RUE MORGUE.
Stevens plays Frank–or at least, that’s the name given to him by Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), who has brought together a group of strangers with specific criminal talents. Their job: to abduct Abigail (Alisha Weir), the young daughter of a very wealthy man from whom they hope to ransom her for $50 million. Unfortunately for them, this cute little ballerina turns out to be a bloodsucker, which turns the story in a very gory direction. Frank at first seems to possess the coolest head and most ruthless attitude of the gang, but that changes as the horror of their situation escalates. A rousing mix of over-the-top horror and black humor directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, ABIGAIL (see review here) places Stevens among an energetic ensemble that also includes Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Will Catlett and the late Angus Cloud.
I understand that when you first started reading the script for ABIGAIL, you hadn’t been told it was a vampire movie.
Well, it certainly doesn’t start out like a vampire movie, and there are a number of surprises in this script. I especially wasn’t prepared for how funny it was going to be. And it just got funnier once I set foot on set and started collaborating with Matt and Tyler, the Radio Silence boys. Their sense of humor was such a delightful surprise and really infectious, and it really makes the movie. Those guys are so fun, they’re so dedicated. I’d never worked with a directing duo before, and they seemed to divide the stress that a film director normally endures in half.
In a key early scene between you and Melissa Barrera, we learn a little bit about Frank’s character. Was there more to him that you discussed with the filmmakers, or that you might have come up with yourself in terms of his backstory?
Yeah, we wanted him to be a guy who’s made a series of very, very bad decisions in his life, and we’re about to watch him make one final, very, very bad decision. His life has taken a pretty dark turn, he’s having a particularly bad day already when we meet him, and he’s about to have a very, very bad night.
You have a great war of wills with Barrera, and a great physical battle with Alisha Weir. Can you talk about working with those actresses?
Yeah, they’re both phenomenal. Alisha is such a talent, and we were all in awe of her spirit and her countless abilities. She’s a gymnast and a dancer, and incredibly sweet and funny, and also terrifying with those teeth in. Melissa brings such gravity, and I think if there is a “straight man” in the movie, it’s her. She really kind of holds the whole thing down, and the rest of us are just being ridiculous idiots around the two of them.
When doing the fight scenes with Abigail, how much of that was Weir, and how much did they use a stunt performer?
A good deal of it was her, to be honest. Inevitably, there were stunt doubles for some of the moves; there were some incredible things they were asking her to do, and that’s what the doubles were there for. But Alisha was incredible–taking on those insane moves, backflips, kicking me in the head. She could do 12 of those in a row and not bat an eyelash. It was phenomenal to watch.
Was there a particular sensitivity in doing those scenes, since she was so young, to make sure that she didn’t get injured at any point?
Well, I mean, it was usually trying to make sure I wasn’t the one getting injured! She was the one doing the damage. But yeah, we had an incredible stunt crew on this, a very dedicated team who were really looking after all of us. Obviously, everybody wanted to protect Alisha, but she was keen to do so much of it herself. It was inspiring.
How about handling all the blood that gets thrown around in the second half of the film?
There’s a lot of blood in this movie! Apparently it was close to 30,000 liters. We drained Ireland of its fake movie blood resources, and had to have special shipments flown in. It’s essentially syrup, and it gets everywhere, and it’s really disgusting by the end of the day. And the only way to get it off is shaving foam; that’s a little movie secret for you.
Was the whole movie shot in Ireland?
Yes, most of it on location in this extraordinary mansion [Glenmaroon House] just on the edge of Phoenix Park near Dublin city center. And then during the final few weeks, the climax of the movie was shot in a studio. That library is a studio set, because we absolutely destroy it.
I also understand you had to shut down during the writers’ and actors’ strikes, so how was it dealing with that interruption and then resuming months later?
We were shooting during the writers’ strike, and then the actor’s strike really shut us down. The script was in a good enough shape that we were able to start shooting, but it resulted in a good deal of improv that went unchecked by our lovely writer [Guy Busick, who revised the original script by Stephen Shields]. Then the actors’ strike came along, and that stopped us in early July. It wasn’t until late November that we got to come back, and I think we ultimately finished filming just before Christmas last year. So it was really to the wire for these guys to make the release date.
Did anything change from the original conception after you’d had all that time to kind of mull it over?
The one thing that changed was the escalation in ambition for the ultimate fight sequence. They edited a good 70 percent of the movie during the strike, showed it to the studio, they loved it, and then–and this is very unusual in this day and age–they came back with more money and said, “Just make this bigger and crazier.” So they brought in an extra dedicated fight choreographer to work with our stunt team, and really elevated the fight at the end to the next level. The guy had worked on JOHN WICK and BULLET TRAIN, and brought that kind of extreme action to the climax of our movie.
You’re kind of the straight man in ABIGAIL, if there can be such a thing in this story. How did you approach keeping the intensity and the humor of your character balanced?
I don’t know if he is a straight man, really. I think we tried to make him as funny as possible. Every day, we were looking for improv lines, alternate lines, and finding those things in the scenes. It was great fun.
Are there any particularly improvised scenes in the film that you can point out?
I’d say almost all of the scenes have an element of improvised dialogue. At the very least, a few extra “fucks” here and there. I think we just discovered that we are the vampire movie with the most “fuck”s in history, so that’s a crown we all wear very proudly!
Even more than in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN?
I believe so, yeah!
Can you talk about your other co-stars?
It’s a phenomenal team, really, playing such a motley bunch, a very unlikely group. That’s the point of the movie, that we’re all sort of drawn together to perform this crime, and sometimes that’s the nature of moviemaking; you’re thrown together with the most unlikely characters. And we all became very, very close making ABIGAIL. Obviously, it took a lot longer to shoot than we were all expecting, so we spent a lot more time together than we thought we would, and we all became very close while making it.
Do you have a particular favorite vampire film?
There are so many. I’m a big fan of Herzog’s NOSFERATU, SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is very special. And I recently saw a delightful Greek movie called NORWAY, set in the ’80s underground disco scene, about a vampire who can’t stop dancing. I’m very, very fond of it.
You’ve got three major genre films out this year. Is that a coincidence, or were you seeking out genre projects in recent years?
I guess a coincidence. The fact that they’re all coming out at the same time is definitely beyond my control. But I love the variety that my career is affording me, and it’s lovely that they’re sort of showcasing me all at once.
Do you look hope to doing more horror films in the future?
Oh, absolutely, yeah. I might steer clear of the vampire genre for a minute just to avoid so much blood. But I’m particularly fond of horror filmmakers, and their inventiveness and playfulness. I think that’s what keeps bringing me back to the genre.
