BoxOffice® Pro - May 2012

THE
FAMILY
DYNAMIC GETS
TWISTED WHEN
A LONG-LOST
RELATIVE DRINKS
BLOOD
You were really young when the original
Dark Shadows was on the air. Did your
parents let you watch it?
They probably should have been paying more
attention. My mother was probably cooking
dinner and my father was probably in his office.
By the standards of the time, it might have
been considered pretty racy—certainly not by
today’s standards—but there were vampires and
a lot of sexual undercurrents and it was spooky
and scary, and I loved anything scary. Couldn’t
get enough of that.
What was your first reaction when Tim
Burton came to you and asked if you’d be
game to take it to the big screen?
I was thrilled, but the truth is I approached
him. And I don’t normally do that—it’s not
something I’m very comfortable with—and
in fact, I probably wouldn’t have done it if
I didn’t already know him. But I happened
to be working with a mutual friend of ours
when I found out that Tim and Johnny were
developing this, and that mutual friend kept
encouraging me to call him, and one day I
did. There wasn’t even a script yet. And then
a long time went by—at least a year—and
I honestly never thought it would even
happen. You never know with these things,
let alone that we were shooting in England
where there’s all these rules about how many
European actors you hire versus American
actors.
Where did you start in making this character
that Joan Bennett created your own?
One of the things that made it so exciting
working on this film was that there was discovery
every day. Finding that some scenes are
played more seriously, some are more campy,
and you never knew from day to day, scene to
scene, what tone you were going for. Sometimes
even within a scene, it would change. It
made every day really interesting.
You had to balance comedy with the macabre.
And it has to be grounded in some sort of reality,
even though we are talking about vampires.
You can’t completely lose—well, I was about
to say you can’t completely lose credibility, but
then again, maybe you can. The beauty of it is
that audiences now know well enough that you
have to take a leap of faith. Certainly with Tim,
the public knows what his films are like. Which
is obviously part of the fun of watching his
films. It’s also part of the thrill of working with
him. It’s not like you don’t know this filmmaker
and you’re like, “Whoa! What was that?!” It’s
like, “Here we go!”
Audiences know what to expect.
Or they know they don’t know what to expect.
Dark Shadows is as much about its posh, insular
New England world as it is about the
vampires—and that’s what your character
really represents.
Tim said from the get-go that he really felt that
ultimately the movie was about family and the
strength of the family bond. I think that will
come through.
His decision to update the period just a
little less than 10 years—from the mid-’60s
to 1972—really changes the background
and the environment of the world.
I love this period, I’m so happy that he chose it.
It’s such a cool period, but it’s also such a fun
period to poke fun of.
Do you get nervous before you see one of
your own films?
I do—I actually don’t enjoy seeing my films.
You know, I never saw—and it’s a first for
me—but I didn’t see New Year’s Eve. It came
out over the holidays, and I just didn’t get to
see it. And there’s something really nice about
not seeing it because I’m so hard on myself. But
I’m so looking forward to Dark Shadows—I
got really excited just watching the trailer. Like
everyone else, I saw it online and it was just so
good. When you’re shooting a film, if you aren’t
in every scene there’s just so much you aren’t
privy to. Even the ones you’re in, they’re adding
special effects and it’s so much about the
editing and the music, so just to see it all come
together, I can’t wait. I’ll just close my eyes and
plug my ears when I come on-screen.
(continued next page)
MAY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 91