The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub sits with
Dracula: A Love Tale
star Caleb Landry Jones on the set of the upcoming Luc Besson movie.
This refreshing take on Dracula offers a star-crossed love story with mad love and eternal punishment.
In this interview, Jones discusses joining the project, finding who his character is, and over 20 costume changes.

In Luc Besson’s upcoming Dracula: A Love Tale, actor Caleb Landry Jones reunites with the filmmaker as the title vampire in a role that will reimagine what audiences think of this classic character. In this interview, done on the set of the film outside Paris, with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Jones explains, “Usually, they take the monster away from you. This one gives the monster to you.” However, we won’t be seeing the typical story of a creature of lore that wreaks havoc on humans but rather a star-crossed love story that spans centuries.

In the film, Jones works opposite Christoph Waltz and Zoë Bleu Sidel, who plays Dracula’s wife, Elisabeta. Jones portrays the fierce warrior Prince Vlad of Wallachia, who goes on to become the mythical Dracul. But how did he become this movie monster we know today? In A Love Tale, Besson explores the love that was ripped away and how that led Dracula to renounce God and live for an eternity as his punishment. “But the love is very much mad about each other, emphasis on the mad part, absolutely eating each other up, devouring one another for every moment that they are together,” and that madness carries into the future as Dracula searches for his lost love through reincarnation.

While on this set visit, Jones also discussed costumes through the centuries — over 20, in fact — and how he was first approached about the role before filming Besson’s DogMan. We learned about the armor in the movie, how Jones understood what was necessary for the role, and what it’s like filming scenes through centuries. You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.

Finally, if you watch the video, you’ll hear Caleb Landry Jones talking with an unusual accent. The reason is Jones stays in character between takes.

12-Year-Old Caleb Landry Jones Is Freaking Out Right Now
Image via Deadline

COLLIDER: I have so many questions for you, but I just want to first start by saying I love this outfit. How much have you thought about taking this home from set?

CALEB LANDRY JONES: Not at all. I have not thought about it.

But will you take home the outfit?

JONES: No, I will not take home the outfit.

It’s fantastic. I saw a photo of you in the armor. What was it like that the first time you put on the armor and saw what Luc was going for with everything?

JONES: I got to meet Terry [English], who came to do the armor and worked with Luc on [The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc], and he did Excalibur, as well. So, this was very exciting, first off, just to meet this man and then see what they had put together. But the 12-year-old in me was over the moon because it was more fantastic and just really cool, was the word that popped up in the 12-year-old me, of, “Wow, that is so cool!” And then getting in it was another thing, and then going, “Okay, how much can you move,” is another thing. But it’s pretty wild. It was very thin and very light, so it so far has been pretty good.

That’s one of the things I wanted to touch on. Often, the costumes look amazing on screen, but they are not great to work with as an actor because they sometimes can’t move.

JONES: I didn’t have this problem so much. I was watching an interview with Peter Weller for Robocop, and I think they had 10 and a half hours for the suit. This is nothing. [Laughs] What we have is four hours of makeup on some days and some very thin aluminum armor that looks so cool but can bend and contort to fit better. So, it’s pretty easy in that way compared to other films, like Excalibur or Joan of Arc, for example. But I think the armor was 40 kilos or something, 20 at least, I think.

I also think it has to do maybe with technology now and 3D printing and the material.

JONES: Of course, yes.

Luc Besson Offered Caleb Landry Jones Dracula Before ‘DogMan’ Began Filming
“I did not know if he was serious or not.”
Image via EuropaCorp

When you are presented with a role like Dracula and Luc tells you, “I’m interested in you being in this,” is it nerve-wracking? Is it exciting? What goes through your mind? Because it’s such an iconic character.

JONES: Because we talk about it in a way that is very normal. He talks about it in the way of very, very simply just looking at you and thinking, “What can I do with what I have in front of me? What could it be?” That kind of thing. He mentioned Dracula, but I did not know if he was serious or not. [Laughs] We had not started filming DogMan yet, so I wasn’t sure. Then over the weeks, every now and again, he would maybe bring it up over like a week or month or something, “Oh, Dracula, I think you could do it.” And then the script comes later. Then this is now real in another way. Now we film it. So, at the beginning, “I don’t know. I cannot see myself so much…” “But what about Coppola? That was pretty good.” And just very simply talking about it, and not so much in this way of presenting you this, “Yes or no,” kind of thing. Not so much like that. A lot of very normal, very natural.

Once you know you’re doing this, how early on are you analyzing how you wanna play it, finding the voice you wanna use, and just getting ready to inhabit a character like this?

JONES: I don’t know. For me, all of this stuff goes out the window, and it is more about meeting Luc in a space of what he wants and a way for myself to make sense of things that make it what he wants. For me, it is more like the script comes, then I make sense of this for myself in a way. Then you start these things that he gives you that you need like the stunts or the horses or the costume or the armor, for example. Then you start to realize more of what it is, and these are things that I could not have imagined from my kitchen in LA other than, “Oh, that would probably be hard,” and, “Oh, that might be hard,” and, “Oh, I really better start with dialect soon,” and things like this, but more practical.

Then many, many, many, many, many talking with Luc and going over the script and going over, “Yes, and he’s feeling this and this.” So by the time we film, there is not so much question as much in this way. Except we film some things and these things tell more of what the next thing is, and maybe this deviates a little bit. But for the most part, it is really all about trying to understand and figure out for myself to get for him because he sees very much all of this and I am focused very much on one particular thing.

‘Dracula: A Love Tale’ Gives the Monster to the Audience
We stay with Dracula much longer in this version.
Image via Virginie Besson-Silla

One of the things about Dracula and vampires…

JONES: You probably know much more.

No, I’m not an expert. Believe me. But each version has different powers and different rules. What are you looking forward to audiences seeing with this version?

JONES: Usually, we do not see the character from this perspective in the sense that we do not get to stay with him for as long as we do in this film. Usually, the monster is away, and we play around with this throughout the film. We don’t get so much to hear from him. In this film, we get to spend time with him in a way that we have not before, which is good. Usually, they take the monster away from you. This one gives the monster to you.

Luc has talked about how his is really a love story — that is the movie.

JONES: It is, yes. I don’t know if I noticed. [Laughs] The script is A Love Tale.

Can you talk about that aspect and also working with your costar to bring this love story to life?

JONES: In the time that we had before filming, Zoë [Bleu Sidel] had the idea about a particular kind of dance that comes from Japan that was brought from mercury poisoning and Dadaism. We took a few classes when Luc introduced us to someone here. There are some things that we were able to find early on that we bring into the movie. But the love is very much mad about each other, and emphasis on the mad part, absolutely eating each other up, devouring one another for every moment that they are together. We see this. The love is something that begins, but does not get to be fulfilled. She is taken from him in a time when the early butterflies are still flying around. It is the first love, in this way. It is the first time. If you are lucky to have this in life, it is the first love.

Then it gets cut short, and it becomes about longing for this and entering into a kind of madness. In a way, seclusion and isolation. It gets more confusing as time passes and hundreds of years pass by. But it is this love that he will do anything for, and has to find a way outside of God to get it back, or to find it again through reincarnation. He waits and waits and waits and searches and searches and searches, and gives up, and waits and waits and waits, and has this madness before he finds her again.

‘Dracula: A Love Tale’ Required 20+ Costume Changes
Image via Virginie Besson-Silla

One of the things that I am looking forward to seeing is how Luc is taking this film in the 15th century, 16th, 17th… He’s showing the passage of time.

JONES: Yes. I was watching behind-the-scenes of Alice in Wonderland, and they said, “We have lots of costume changes. I think Alice has six.” I think we have 28 or 26, and I thought, “Oh, well, six is not so bad!” [Laughs]

Luc told me there are 20-something costume changes and I wanted to know, for you, what has it been like like acting and being a part of centuries like that? Because it’s very cool.

JONE: No, this is incredible. We have an incredible costume department. As you see, the set designer is incredible. Everyone is doing such good work. But to see this 15th, 16th, 17th, and get into the 18th, and to have differences possibly in the social aspect of these times, what does this do? When you get to come into what is supposed to be Versailles, and everyone is dressed in powdered wigs, it is quite amazing. You get angry and upset and maybe take a few. [Laughs] But no, no, it is really something to see the timeline charted from 15 to 18. I’m very happy to live in the time that I live in now. Aren’t you?

Oh, 100%.

JONES: You don’t need help to get dressed. It feels very nice.

At least you were not wearing a corset.

JONES: No, no, that was the last film. We don’t do that in this film. Now for other people, everyone else wears a corset in this movie.

Dracula: A Love Tale will open in theaters in 2025.

Image via Virginie Besson-Silla