Ewens Abid on Dracula: A Love Tale – "There are lots of scary moments with the blood and the vampirism, but really it’s about this sheer commitment to love..."

I f you thought Tom Cruise’s 1990s vampire, Lestat, was a sexy blood-sucking devil, wait till you see Caleb Landry Jones in Dracula: A Love Tale, French filmmaker Luc Besson’s bonkbuster retelling of Bram Stoker’s classic gothic horror stoey.

I nearly choked on my popcorn as Prince Vladimir of Wallachia spends the first five minutes of the film pleasuring his wife Elisabeta with the greatest of gusto.

Played by Rosanna Arquette’s daughter Zoë Bleu, the Princess consort is no slouch in the coital department herself, suggesting that 15th century Romania was a hotbed of medieval lust.

It’s Elizabeta’s violent death shortly afterwards that causes Vladimir to renounce god and become Dracula.

SPOILER ALERT: The action then jumps, as per Stoker’s book, to the 1890s when Dracula becomes convinced that Elisabeta has been reincarnated as Mina, the wife of Parisien lawyer, Jonathan Harker, who arrives at his dilapidated castle wanting to buy it for a client.

Needless to say, this does not bode well for either Harker or his missus.

“Luc Besson has said that it’s the romantic aspect of Dracula he wanted to explore, rather than the horror side of things,” reflects Ewens Abid, the French-born, UK-based actor who plays Jonathan Harker. “There are lots of scary moments with the blood and the vampirism and heads being cut off, but really it’s about this sheer commitment to love and a longing that only grows over time. It’s very sensuous and very charming.”

Ewens Abid in Dracula: A Love Tale

That it is. Asked how big a Dracula fan he was before linking up with Besson, Ewens says: “I loved the Francis Ford Coppola version (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) with Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves who played my character in it. Which is a weird coincidence because I’ve always loved Keanu Reeves to bits. He’s such an incredible human being, and I can only dream of having the career he’s had.

“The Dracula story is so iconic and then, of course, there was the draw of working with Luc Besson, this visionary director and storyteller whose films I grew up watching.”

After going through the audition process, Abid found himself freezing his whatnots off in Lapland.

“That’s where they shot the scene of me arriving at the castle,” he resumes. “It was midnight, -15º with deep, deep snow and every bit of me was stinging from the cold. It brought everything to life, though, and was such an enriching experience.”

How would he describe Jonathan Harker?

“He’s innocent, naïve and adventurous,” Ewens proffers. “As the story unfolds, he discovers this courage inside him that he didn’t know he had. It’s a real journey for him both physically and mentally.”

In case you’re wondering, yes, Dracula: A Love Tale is every bit as visually stunning as previous Besson classics like Subway, Nikita, The Big Blue, The Fifth Element and Dogman which also starred Caleb Landry Jones.

“The Big Blue moves me to tears every time I watch it,” Ewens resumes. “What also attracted me to this film is the incredible ensemble. Along with Caleb and Zoë who have this amazing chemistry between them, I get to appear in what is probably the film’s pivotal scene with Christoph Waltz who plays the priest trying  to stop Dracula.”

What was Waltz, who’s best known for his chilling turn as Standartenfuhrer Hans Landa in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, like to work with?

“Christoph is very intelligent and has an understanding of the world that I found fascinating,” Ewens enthuses. “His knowledge of culture is so impressive. I didn’t actively ask him for advice but it came naturally in the conversations we had. He’s a truly magnificent soul-touching person.”

Despite the recent controversies that have enshrouded him, few would question Besson’s position as a giant of French cinema.

“What impressed me is how he put together a cast that was very human and made us work so well together,” Abid reflects. “Zoë, Caleb and I were complete strangers but Luc created an environment which, from day one, allowed us to be totally open with each other. We learned lines together, exchanged ideas and became good friends over the two months we were shooting.

“I was a bit shocked when Luc said, ‘Are you happy with that scene? Do you have any ideas you’d like to explore? I’m happy with what we have but would you like to do another take?’ He’s very collaborative.”

(l-r) David Shields, Ewens Abid, Christoph Waltz and Guillaume de Tonquédec in Dracula: A Love Tale

Ewens admits to feeling sorry for Caleb Landry Jones.

“It took six hours for him to get the full 400-year-old prosthetic treatment, whereas I was in and out of makeup in minutes,” he reveals. “Caleb’s very genuine and we’re still in touch.”

We’ve Monsieur Abid to thank for his son catching the acting bug as a kid.

“I’d go to the cinema pretty much every week with my father and watch two movies back-to-back,” he recalls. “It was a combination of that and seeing Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine, a very important French film which not long ago had a 25th anniversary rerelease. I looked at the three actors in it – Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé and Said Taghmaoui – and thought, ‘Wow, could I do that?’

“My first role was as tree number 3 in a school play! Then, when I decided to give it a proper go, I did evening acting classes for a year whilst also studying for a business diploma at college. In 2012, I moved to England and got a place at East 15, a drama school in Essex. I did the international course with people from all around the world and the training was incredible. They wanted us to be well rounded and know what it’s like to be behind the camera as well as in front of it. I made a lot of mistakes but left thinking, ‘I’m ready to audition and get roles.’”

Which he’s done in abundance since making his professional bow five years ago in Irvine Welsh’s Crime series.

“It was my first TV project and I got to work with Dougray Scott who’s another of those actors who, just by being around, you learn so much from,” Ewens observes.

Shortly after that he guested on Black Ops, the BBC comedy drama which in January earned its creator and star Gbemisola Ikumelo a BAFTA.

“I had a lot of fun doing that – I mean, who doesn’t like playing a baddie? Gbemisola is an incredible actress, so I wasn’t surprised when she got her award. My time on set was brief but I really enjoyed it.”

Abid’s first major film was The Last Rifleman, shot in Belfast with Pierce Brosnan heading up the cast.

“It’s a lovely city,” he observes. “He came up to me, shook my hand and said, ‘Hi, hello, I’m Pierce.’ In my head I was going, ‘Yeah, I know!’ We worked on the scene a little bit before we started shooting, and he was just a great person to be around.”

Things, as Ewens puts it, “got totally surreal and crazy” last year when he appeared as Tazi, a Ghorman Front soldier, in the Star Wars sequel, Andor.

“It was unlike anything I’ve done before,” he says, clearly still awestruck by the experience. “The plaza where you see the Ghorman massacre take place and the streets around it weren’t CGI, they were fully built with incredible attention to detail. You could go close up to a wall and see moss on it. The stormtroopers were there, the Ghormans were there, the weapons in our hands were real, the explosions were actually happening. They went full method on it.”

Ewens is, of course, a consummate professional unfazed by all eventualities, but were there moments when he thought, “Fuck me, I’m in the Stars Wars universe!”

“Yeah, truly!” he laughs. “Before you start shooting, they take you on a tour of the set which is supposed to get that out of your system -  but there are still plenty of moments when you’re starstruck!”

In between that little lot, Ewens found time to write and star in a one-man play, Belle Amour.

“I performed that in a tiny pub venue as part of the Camden Fringe Festival,” he tells us. “It’s about multiple sclerosis and where your mind goes when your body lets you down. A person in my family has this illness, so it came from a very personal place. I’d like to do more writing and maybe direct in the future.”

A dapper dresser, Ewens is fresh back from Paris Fashion Week where he did a turn on the catwalk.

“Yeah, it was for an Italian brand, Magliano. You always forget how short it is. Months and months of work gets put into this show, which only lasts ten minutes.”

Finally, it’s Ewens’ character wielding the sword when the aforementioned Dracula: A Love Tale decapitation takes place. Did he realise then how über-gory it was going to look on the big screen?

“No, I jumped out of my seat and almost had a heart attack like you did,” he laughs. “I’ve watched the film a lot of times now and it never gets any less shocking.”

• Dracula: A Love Tale is available now from VOD platforms