About a month and a half ago, the news broke that Karyn Kusama had been tapped to direct Blumhouse’s Dracula movie, which is currently in development. The script is still being worked on and details still being sorted, but there’s already one actor who wants a crack at the lead role: Sebastian Stan.
In an interview with THR for his new movie, Endings, Beginnings, the conversation mostly covered that movie and, of course, Marvel. Notably, the decisions made in Avengers: Endgame and the upcoming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which was just a few weeks away from wrapping before the coronavirus forced production to shut down.
But in between pitching his latest and the Marvel talk, he did reveal an interesting tidbit about another project entirely. Interviewer Brian Davids mentioned he loved Kusama’s Destroyer and then referenced the upcoming monster flick. That’s when Stan revealed that not only did he already know about the project, he’s already shot his shot.
“I already emailed her about that,” he laughed. “I said, ‘You know I’m from Romania, right?’ and she goes, ‘Yes, yes, it’s very early — and there’s a pandemic. Hopefully, we’ll see you in four years.'”
Honestly, picking Sebastian Stan to play Dracula would be a really intriguing casting choice. Stan doesn’t necessarily get the shine that the other MCU actors do. He’s more reserved, quieter in team-up interviews; his desert-dry humor doesn’t always translate as easily as does RDJ’s grandiose charm, or Chris Evans’ outspoken candor, or Anthony Mackie’s chatterbox tendencies. And when Stan isn’t doing Marvel movies, he’s off doing indies with little publicity behind them. He appears largely uninterested in doing the PR dance of making his own name as big as the name of the Marvel character he plays.
Not one bit of this is a bad thing. I’m saying this simply to point out that Stan is a seriously talented but underrated actor. He was excellent in Kusama’s Destroyer, and I’d be curious to see what he does if allowed to sink his teeth (HAH) into a role that isn’t a Marvel tentpole but also isn’t a limited release indie, either. Kusama often deals with themes of loss and grief, of the anxiety of figuring out one’s identity. If she brings those sensibilities to her Dracula movie, Stan could put a really interesting, introspective spin on the role. Of all the projects currently in development, this is one of the ones I’m most excited for.
