‘Dracula’ Cast
From left: Katie McGrath, Victoria Smurfit, Thomas Kretschmann, Nonso Anozie, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Jessica De Gouw.
From left: Katie McGrath, Victoria Smurfit, Thomas Kretschmann, Nonso Anozie, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Jessica De Gouw.
British production designer Rob Harris (Mr. Selfridge, Hornblower) added items on the cutting edge of 1896 — telephones, electric carriages and the cinema — to the milieu. “The idea was to make it as interesting as we could and do a new take,” says Harris, a three-time Emmy nominee. “It gives you more scope to invent your world.”
Production designer Harris wanted a Great Gatsby look for the count’s Carfax Manor. The massive entrance hall — where Rhys Meyers and Jessica De Gouw, who plays love interest Mina Murray, dance — features arches, jewel tones, a patterned inlaid floor and a modern contrivance, a chandelier powered by electricity. “He is very wealthy,” says executive producer Daniel Knauf, “so the world that he lives in is slightly heightened and very lush.”
The sets were built on two Budapest soundstages, and the production found that Hungary’s capital, with its centuries-old streets and patinaed buildings, stood in well for London.
The design for Dracula’s lavish mansion, Carfax Manor, “came from a very rich person’s house in London from the period. We didn’t want Gothic or a castle tower. It’s kind of similar to an 1896 Great Gatsby with strong colors,” Harris says.
Besides the task of building some 150 sets for the series’ 10 episodes, a main challenge was designing Dracula’s world at night, as sunlight is deadly for a vampire.
Perhaps the most unexpected change is that Dracula’s private quarters contain no coffin. Says Harris, “He will sleep in an actual bed.”
Dracula's opulent four-poster canopied bed is worthy of his station.
“We had to do a lot of dramatic lighting to make it look interesting. Dracula lives in a twilight world," says Harris.
Rob Harris (right) and supervising art director Jo Riddell with a set model.
A pair of antique gold trading pieces with images of historical figure Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler.
An ivory-handled sword is Dracula’s weapon of choice — besides fangs, of course.