After we shot the vast majority of the theater stuff in Episode 2, I’d been doing “Madea” for 3 months on the West Finish. I completed on a Sunday, and on Wednesday or Thursday I used to be taking pictures that complete sequence. So I used to be already primed when Levan [the director of Episode 2, Levan Akin] stated: “Do it like a theatrical efficiency. We’ll handle the whole lot.” They filmed the whole lot broad with 4 cameras, so we didn’t know after we had been on and after we weren’t. You simply needed to hold at it. It was relentless, and he shot it brilliantly.
In Episode 7, simply earlier than Claudia dies, being on that stage was like doing a play. We shot that courtroom sequence in 15-minute chunks. They had been insane. A whole lot of the time there have been no cameras onstage with us. They had been both on cranes, so that they had been sweeping out and in, or it will solely be Emma [the director of Episode 7, Emma Freeman] taking pictures, doing all of the shut protection first so that you get these contemporary performances instantly, not on the finish of three days or no matter. Then all of the cameras went away, so that you by no means noticed them once more. It turned like a play.
Is it difficult, as an actor, to play an actor with a … completely different degree of expertise?
Poor outdated Francis. Sure, he’s by no means achieved the giddy heights that he wish to have. He’s a giant outdated present pony, isn’t he? Mainly, I used to be like a magpie, taking a look at the whole lot from Vincent Value in “Theater of Blood” — nicely, Vincent Value in a lot of issues, truly — to my cat. I’d watch how my cat performs with mice, and I used to be like: You recognize what? I’m going to steal a little bit of that.
Had you ever wished to play a vampire?
Sure, completely. I really like horror. It’s what I reside for. I grew up watching Christopher Lee as Dracula, and William Marshall as Prince Mamuwalde in “Blacula.” Very debonair, theatrical, that wealthy voice. I’ve watched these vampires so long as I can keep in mind.
I’ve all the time adored horror. Children which can be outsiders typically do. Rising up as a queer child, these villains, just like the vampires, are sometimes how folks deal with homosexual folks. It’s all the time there, that queer coding. In these outdated James Whale motion pictures, it’s there. It’s written into them.
Greater than some other author, Anne Rice recognized the tragedy inside the monstrousness of the vampire. They’re immortal, however the folks they love can nonetheless die, and that have stays with them actually without end.
