Last month The Vault reported on how our perception of vampires has changed, in my article, “Today’s vampires, not about capes and bats“, and that this vampiric transformation makes perfect sense allowing the forbidden to be something we can now embrace. Below is an article that goes further into the new phenomenon discussing how the UK has exported quite a few of their own, of which we now are enamored.
From Gary Oldman and Kate Beckinsale, to Rob Pattinson and Stephen Moyer, the UK exports quality vampires.
The following is a partial transcript; for full story, listen to audio.
Story by Alex Gallafent, PRI’s “The World”
The British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, has written a blog post extolling the virtue of British (on screen) vampires.
It begins at the British Embassy in Washington, with a recent blog post titled, “A Bloody Good Show.” The author is Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Britain’s Ambassador to the United States.
Sheinwald has noticed something unusual in Hollywood. Admittedly, this doesn’t give much away. To explain, he notes that British on-screen bad guys are commonplace. But he points out, “a less remarked-upon British contribution to American life, to the unholy ranks of the Silver Screen’s undead.”
Ambassador Sheinwald writes not of mummies rising from the grave, nor of zombies roaming Sunset Boulevard; but of vampires. British actors playing vampires that is.
“Could it be the British climate that creates the pale and pasty complexion necessary to portray authentically Bram Stoker’s monster?” Wrote Sheinwald. “Or is it our ‘deadpan’ humour, putting the grave into graveyard, that makes us Brits especially suited to vampire kitsch?”
Early in the history of silver screen vampires, there was Christopher Lee, sinking his teeth into the role of Dracula. Later, Gary Oldman also played the Count. In his case, for Francis Ford Coppola.
“I had a casket up at my house. It was a gift from Francis. So I can’t reveal whether I ever used it,” said Oldman.
Oldman’s revelation and Ambassador Sheinwald’s blog reveal a sinister though perhaps unsurprising truth: The British are more than comfortable playing pasty-faced, centuries-old bloodsuckers.
Here’s Kate Beckinsale as Selene, in one of the “Underworld” movies: “You’re in the middle of a war that’s been raging for the better part of a thousand years. A blood feud between vampires and likens. Werewolves”
And you wouldn’t catch a British actor playing a werewolf; heavens, no. That kind of thing is left to the Australians.
This week, another movie vampire arrives, in “Twilight: New Moon.” This British vampire takes on a new shape. Actor Robert Pattinson disguises his true nature under the cloak of an American accent. He’s not the only one. Stephen Moyer does the same for his portrayal of Bill Compton in the HBO series, “True Blood.”
“Your choices are your own, as are mine. You have my gratitude for your hospitality. I will not soon forget it,” Moyer’s character, Compton, says in an episode about the hospitality shown to him during the Civil War, moments before he turns bloodsucker.
But he may as well have been talking about the easy passage British vampires, or actors, have made into American cultural life.
PRI’s “The World” is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. “The World” is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.
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