Original subtitles

- It was 1974. - Yes.

How was your career going that year?

Well, I could tell you about how my career was going before 1974.

I'd been living in Italy for about 14 years,

as I'd moved to Rome back in 1960.

The Italian film industry was in full swing in those years.

I had already done several comedies,

with household names like Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, and Ettore Scola.

Fellini, too, and I wanted

to meet him so badly he was the reason I had moved to Italy from France.

I wanted to fulfill that dream.

I've also worked with Bunuel, Tarkovskij, and Oshima,

just to name a few non-Italian directors.

I was also lucky enough to work with Bertolucci,

playing a tiny role in his episode for the anthology film LOVE AND ANGER.

I shared the screen with the Living Theatre company.

That was my brief experience with Bertolucci.

The ones I've mentioned were all masters of cinema.

Oh, I almost forgot Lattuada,

but there are so many others I could mention, such as Lina Wertmuller.

Do you remember how you came to work on BLOOD FOR DRACULA?

Well, it happened due to my agent.

She asked me if I was interested in playing a role in the film.

That's how I met Paul Morrissey.

The prospect of meeting such an admired artist

like Paul was absolutely thrilling.

He was already famous for his contribution to pop art in the US.

Pop art was distant from my, let's say, more European cultural background.

On a personal level, it was quite an important experience.

I believe it gave me the great opportunity to take part in something

so unique compared to my experiences up to that point.

What was your relationship with horror literature and films?

Were you already familiar with Stoker's Dracula? Did you like the horror genre?

I didn't have any particular relationship or interest in horror.

But, of course, taking part in this beautiful adventure,

I tried to learn about horror as much as I could.

I obviously read the book,

and tried to relate with the surreal atmosphere of Morrissey's film.

I'm not particularly attracted to horror films,

but I gravitate towards the kind of cinema that defies conventions.

It's something that has always fascinated me.

How would you describe your character?

Well, Esmeralda was the only virgin of that,

let's say, problematic family.

She experiences life in a very innocent manner,

and this also allows her to find out things about life

that she'd have never discovered otherwise.

She gets completely carried away by the events.

And it happens in a very natural way.

This was one of the interesting traits of her character.

Despite the context, the blood and the monsters,

she's surrounded by a beautiful landscape

and lives her daily life in a gorgeous, ancient villa.

A perfect harmony between the beauty of the house and the nature outside.

What do you remember about your costumes and Esmeralda's hairstyle?

Oh, it was all pretty much in the style

of her noble yet deranged family.

It was a very beautiful costume.

Totally white, of course,

to underline her presumed innocence.

The movie was almost completely shot at Villa Parisi in Frascati.

Any memories about that location?

It was a gorgeous setting,

with that uncanny eighteenth or nineteenth century-style garden.

It all looked so apparently harmonious and magnificent.

As a matter of fact, the weirdness of our story

complemented the splendid beauty of such a setting.

It made a beautiful parallel,

also thanks to the addition of the often deformed,

monstrous features of our characters.

It made everything so unreal yet totally natural.

It actually reminds me a bit of Bunuel's films.

The process of viewing a normal

daily existence through deformed lenses.

This also goes for the bits of humor we find throughout the film.

I actually believe it's one of the key points when analyzing this

filmed work of pop art.

The film's production designer was Enrico Job,

whom you'd already worked with on Wertmuller's film.

- That's right. - What's your memory of such an outstanding professional?

Enrico was also an immense professional of the stage.

He'd already worked with Giorgio Strehler, Damiani, and other giants.

I also met him during my experience on Lina Wertmuller's LASCIAMI ANDARE MADRE.

I was acting on an uneven stage,

which felt like standing on a boat at sea.

He had also designed my costume.

It was a costume made for a young girl,

who then becomes a much older woman and confronts her own mother

for something she did during World War ll.

It was about concentration camps and the rise of Nazism.

But that's another story. A story of real horrors.

Let's talk about the other members of the cast, starting with Count Dracula.

What do you remember about Udo Kier?

Oh, I have many funny memories of him,

especially because we had a lot of laughs during breaks,

mainly about how funny our characters looked.

Friendships made on sets often don't last long.

That's unfortunate, but that's the way it is for actors of stage and screen.

You enjoy those moments of unity and then,

all of a sudden, everything ends.

We were all close: me, Udo,

Joe Dallesandro, and my "sisters."

We had a wonderful complicity.

Speaking of the sisters,

how was your relationship with those three beautiful actresses?

Well, we were all rather amused with taking part in such a creative project.

I think it was very different from the films they usually took part in.

This one was way more excessive compared to the ones they were used to.

We all had fun wearing those costumes and strange make-up.

There's a big sense of camaraderie in a film,

especially in a picture so different from the norm like this one.

Vittorio De Sica played your father.

You had already worked with him in 1971, in Fausto Tozzi's TRASTEVERE.

That's correct, and in an American film as well.

I remember when I met him for the first time,

he said that if our paths had crossed earlier

he'd have picked me for MIRACLE IN MILAN.

For the role played by Brunella Bovo, with whom people compared me a lot.

It was such an honor to hear De Sica say something like that.

I'll never forget one of his lines in the film.

I don't remember the exact words,

but it was something along the lines of "Everything will be all right,"

which of course sounded so weird given the craziness of the story.

It was a pivotal line given the nutty, surreal context of the film.

- It was his last picture, as he died shortly after it. - Sadly, yes.

- He gave a very over-the-top, ironic performance here. - Indeed.

How does it feel to share a scene with such a legendary actor?

Oh, it was rather challenging.

Yet, he was such an acting giant that he always put you at ease.

He was a legend. He still is, actually.

An immortal presence, still resonant to this clay.

How do I put this?

Well, when you're looking at such a great artist,

you always realize how natural he makes his performances look.

It's so flawless and impressive it can only be defined as natural acting.

The ending of the film is a crescendo of brutal violence.

Lots of blood and many special effects.

- Such special effects include your vampire teeth, of course. - Yes.

Can you tell us more about it?

Oh, well,

I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to properly explain it, you see.

I still remember that ending scene, though,

where the situation escalates to the extreme.

I had this scene with my character screaming in despair,

incapable of accepting that Dracula

would not be mine forever.

I remember the blood-curdling screams.

Paul allowed rne and the others to put ourselves in the characters' shoes.

He's such a wonderful individual.

We had a lovely relationship with him.

At some point I remember he invited me

and a few others to his beautiful villa on the Appian Way.

He behaved a bit differently there.

He wasn't an elitist in the slightest.

I remember him as a fun-loving, joyous person.

I only have sweet, beautiful memories of him.

I'd like to say I hope to meet him again someday.

It's been 45 years, but that's nothing compared to eternity, right?