Exclusive Interview with Patrick Lussier
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Patrick Lussier on: Dracula 3: Legacy
Staci Wilson / Horror.com: I see you’ve worked quite a bit with Wes Craven. How did you come to meet him, and start working with him?
Patrick Lussier: I started working for Wes back in 1991 on a short-lived NBC series called NIGHTMARE CAFÉ. I ended up cutting the episode he directed, “Aliens Ate My Lunch” and we hit it off. After that he was kind enough to ask me to cut his next feature which was WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE (Nightmare 7 at the time). That went great and one thing led to another and here we are.
You certainly wear an awful lot of hats — I know your upcoming project is working as an editor on Wes Craven’s Red Eye, but you’ve also done all three Dracula films as a director and writer. Which do you find more enjoyable? Is it possible to be a jack of all trades and master of all?
I enjoy editing and the entire post-production process. Editing’s where you really see the movie become a movie, building the pieces into what will become its final form. Directing’s great and I’d like to do more of that but it’s great to be able to edit interesting projects between. As a director you have to be a jack of all trades, some are masters, some… well… some of us are working our way towards that goal.
The storyline for Dracula 3 was really cool — I especially liked the carnival sequence, and the creepy sideshow folks as even creepier vampires. Where did that idea come from?
The circus sequences were some of my favourites in Dracula 3 as well. I was inspired by an old Hammer film called VAMPIRE CIRCUS. It was such a macabre and insane world, one that Joel Soisson and I felt could really be at home in Dracula 3. The Stiltman especially was something I’d wanted to try for some time. Visually, I just thought it could be horrific and twisted. Joel and I had written more scenes for the Stiltman but ultimately they were too big and expensive for us. Instead we went for the blow-out battle we have.
Did you know that Anne Rice once said that when she was writing Interview with the Vampire, she pictured Rutger Hauer as Lestat? What made you think of him for Dracula?
I’d read that Rutger was considered for Lestat and he had mentioned that. Rutger in his Roy Batty days would’ve been perfect for Lestat. When we created the concept of the Kurtzian Dracula for Drac 3, Rutger was how pitched it to the studio. He, in the role, was pivotal to the whole construction of the film and its genesis. From the first conversation Joel and I had about the story for Drac 3, Rutger was the archetype.
What was Rutger like to work with?
It’s always a privilege to work an actor who is as gifted and dedicated as Rutger. He arrived days early to discuss his interpretation of the character with me and to rehearse with Jason Scott Lee. We worked through his scenes and he enhanced his dialogue in certain scenes, making the character uniquely his own. He worked closely with myself and Gary Tunnicliffe, our wonderful make-up designer on the look of his character, enhancing and tweaking it from scene to scene, really creating a visual evolution. When you watch Rutger, he makes Dracula younger and younger as the scenes progress. It was the perfect interpretation.
Jason Scott Lee was in Part 2, and has an even bigger role in Part 3 — and he is buff! Didn't he hate stripping down in that freezing cold weather?
Jason Scott Lee is another amazing actor to work with. There really isn’t a nicer human to be working with under tough conditions, or any conditions for that matter. And yeah, Jason’s in amazing physical shape. He had no problem stripping down, especially as we shot those scenes early in the schedule before the weather turned on us. They’re cut into other scenes that look colder that make it look like he was freezing. He wasn’t. Especially after screaming for the ‘morning purge.’
What does Jason bring to the role of Father Uffizi that you feel is totally unique to him?
Jason Scott Lee is a generous actor and an absolute honor to work with. He’s also a great physical actor with complete control. Working through the fight choreography and any of the blocking was so easy with him and he contributed so much to the movement of the film. When Joel created Father Uffizi we both saw the character differently.
Once we cast Jason there’s no way it could played by anyone else. He made Uffizi far more enigmatic and far more dangerous then we imagined. There’s a level of feral intensity to Uffizi mixed with a stoic sense of divine purpose that’s all Jason. The same can be said for Jason London. He brought so much heart and compassion to Luke, really becoming the identifier for the audience. He and Jason built such a strong relationship, the bond between their characters, was due to them as people as much as it was to the writing. They really connected and we were so lucky to have them.
What aspect of Dracula 3 do you think fans of the genre will most enjoy, and what’s your personal favorite scene?
I hope the fans of the series enjoy the different direction Dracula 3 takes. It’s really the buddy, vampire version of Heart of Darkness set in
The whole circus sequence is one of my favourite elements of the film but ultimately I’d have to say that it’s the ending that I like best. It’s such a fitting end to the story, about the price that must be paid. I hope the audience finds the final moments to be powerful.
The DVD has a lot of cool extras, namely you talking about vampire myth and lore… are you still interested in that sort of thing after all these Dracula movies? What keeps the genre fresh for you?
I’ve always been interested in things that go bump in the night. Not sure why. I guess since those first recurring childhood nightmares where you know ‘it’ is coming to get you and you wake the instant ‘it’ does, bolting upright and choking back screams. Kinda like a rollercoaster that you don’t have to pay for. Your brain just ‘freeruns’ it for you. The genre, vampires, monsters, etc., will always interest me, I suspect.
There’s always an allure to that side of our personalities, the struggles between the good and the bad within each of us, because we’re all both things. To keep the genre fresh you only have to look as far as yourself and the daily conflicts that lurk in the shadows of our own heads.
And make sure you find the location scout Easter Egg… It includes the scout for both films intercut with how the locations were used.
What’s it like doing a commentary for your DVDs?
Commentaries are a blast. I find I talk too much which, when I listen to them later, annoys me. But it’s fun to walk back through the film recalling everything that happened. I find I get anxious to fill up the space that I end up delving into the minutia of the moment. I don’t prep anything for them (probably obvious) but sometimes Joel can be so funny I wonder if he’s prepared his bits in advance.
The commentaries are a great way to give closure to the filmmaking experience. This is what they were, this is what we thought when we made it, and this his how kind memory is now, forgetting or glossing over many of the trials that really happened. For those who are curious about the film, it’s a handy archival reference that may even be occasionally useful.
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Read the Horror.com review of Dracula III: Legacy here.
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Staci Layne Wilson reporting