Dracula's Jonathan Rhys Meyers Offers 6 Bloody Bits in Advance of His Dark Series' Premiere

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Dracula Season 1 Premiere Spoilers Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Dracula Season 1 Premiere Spoilers Jonathan Rhys Meyers

In the opening moments of Dracula, NBCโ€™s new take on Bram Stokerโ€™s classic vampire tale, the titular creature is awakened after rotting in a coffin for centuries.

Feels almost that long since weโ€™ve had Jonathan Rhys Meyers on our TV screens, doesnโ€™t it?

The Tudors star makes his television return with the gothic โ€“ and well-known โ€” story about a man cursed to walk the Earth forever, feasting on his victims and subject to the whims of the demon living inside him.

VIDEO | Dracula Exclusive Preview: โ€˜As American as God, Guns and Bourbonโ€™

But the series that premieres Friday night (10/9c), Rhys Meyers says, is much more about his characterโ€™s battered humanity than his superhuman abilities. (In other words, donโ€™t expect this bloodsucker to sparkle.)

โ€œHeโ€™s been alive for 400 years, which means itโ€™s not the monster that makes Dracula interesting. Itโ€™s the human that makes him interesting,โ€ the actor tells TVLine. โ€œThey cursed him with still being human, which is a terrible thing: to create a monster and leave this little melanoma, this little cavity of humanity in him.โ€

Read on to find out what happens when that humanity is stoked, as well as why Dracula is quite the evolved horror project as well as who the fanged one loathes, lusts after, longs for and leaves standing guard when the sun rises.

RELATED | Watch the Dracula Trailer Now

Dracula Season 1 Premiere Spoilers Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Dracula Season 1 Premiere Spoilers Jonathan Rhys Meyers

ME, MYSELF AND DIE

| Rhys Meyersโ€™ character, Vlad Tepes, is a 16th-century warrior cursed with a demon: Dracula. โ€œThis is where the conflict exists,โ€ Rhys Meyers says โ€“ but wait, it gets even more complicated: Tepes, whom we see making his entrance into 1896 London society, is pretending to be an American industrialist named Alexander Grayson. Grayson โ€œis Vlad performing as an American,โ€ the actor says, adding with a laugh, โ€œI had to work very hard on the voice, because itโ€™s not like an American of Santa Monica today.โ€

GRAND ENTRANCE | At a gala Grayson throws for his new British contemporaries, we learn that heโ€™s gunning to take down members of the Order of the Dragon, aka the same organization that doomed him to eternal torment. First order of business: Destroy the source of their wealth by taking out their fossil-fuel holdings; yep, the bad guys in this story are Big Oil.

โ€œItโ€™s like Sun Tzuโ€™s The Art of War,โ€ Rhys Meyers explains. โ€œIf you take away the armyโ€™s ability to sustain itself, then it canโ€™t fightโ€ฆ So what [Grayson] is doing is trying to deplete [the order]โ€˜s army by rocking their finances. If you canโ€™t pay your soldiers, your soldiers wonโ€™t fight for you.โ€ An important note: โ€œGrayson has wealth,โ€ the actor says โ€“ and weโ€™ll find out exactly how that came to be in future episodes.

RELATED | Grimmโ€˜s Bitsie Tulloch and Claire Coffee Preview Season 3โ€ฒs โ€˜Gnarlyโ€™ Start

Dracula Season 1 Premiere Spoilers Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Dracula Season 1 Premiere Spoilers Jonathan Rhys Meyers

HAVE WE MET?

| Grayson is distracted from plotting his enemiesโ€™ downfall when he notices a very familiar face across the dance floor: Jessica De Gouwโ€™s Mina Murray (Arrow), who bears an amazing resemblance to Vladโ€™s long-dead wife. Grayson takes an immediate interest in getting to know the young medical student โ€“ the only female in her class โ€“ and in championing her relationship with a handsome journalist named Jonathan Harker (played by Mr. Selfridgeโ€˜s Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Rhys Meyers knows that sounds counterintuitive. โ€œI keep her close by keeping him close,โ€ he says. โ€œFor now.โ€

IS IT GETTING WARM IN HERE? | Victoria Smurfit (About a Boy) plays Lady Jayne, a well-to-do woman with a secret thatโ€™s connected to the Order of the Dragon. Naturally, Grayson makes her one of his projects, and naturally, that involves the doffing of corsets. โ€œLady Jayne is the alpha female,โ€ Rhys Meyers says. โ€œSex is very, very important to her.โ€ (Grayson doesnโ€™t seem to mind, either.)

FRIENDS AND FRENEMIES | Though to the world Grayson seems like just another braggart American, a few know his secret. These include Renfield (Game of Thronesโ€˜ Nonso Anozie), his right-hand man, and Prof. Abraham Van Helsing (The Riverโ€˜s Thomas Kretschmann) โ€“ the latter who is known in the lore as Draculaโ€™s adversary. โ€œThey will become so,โ€ Rhys Meyers says, laughing. โ€œThat little love affair wonโ€™t last.โ€

THIS SUCKS โ€“ BUT NOT TOO MUCH | The premiere features some hard-core fighting and a bit of gore, but donโ€™t expect a Walking Dead-style gross-out each week. โ€œWe didnโ€™t want to do too much of the neck-biting killing,โ€ the actor says. โ€œToo much of that, and then people get bored, and itโ€™s not frightening anymore.โ€ Plus, itโ€™s just not Vladโ€™s style. โ€œI didnโ€™t want to turn him into somebody whoโ€™s his shouting, roaring monster,โ€ he adds. โ€œI wanted him to be much more controlled.โ€

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