Dominic Sherwood spoke with Hypable about filming Vampire Academy and his favorite scenes from the upcoming film.
The Vampire Academy will hit theaters on February 7, and Sherwood talked with us about playing Christian Ozera, kissing Lucy Fry and the fans.
What was it like to audition for the role and were you aware of the fanbase?
No, no, no, no, I wasn’t. I missed the books, they were a little out of my age range but when my agent called me and said we got you this audition based on a series of best selling books I knew I had to do research. I read the books and the fanbase is amazing but it makes me a little a nervous so I try not to think about it. There are all these people out there that already have all these ideas and images in their head. I try not to focus on that but we appreciate it so much. It’s unreal, you have so many people who are supportive of the movie. We worked really hard from the actors to the crew and Weinstein Company.
How did you create the character of Christian?
I went to six auditions for the part of Christian. This is really embarrassing, I worked at Hollister just up the road from where the auditions were being held and I would do an audition one day and my agent would ring me up and say, “that was great but they want you to make him funnier.” I would go in and do that and then I would get a phone call saying, “yeah, that was great but they want you to go in and make him darker, and make him poutier.” I was like, “oh my god, you don’t know what you want!” But when I got offered the role I realized that Christian was all those things.
They wanted to make sure everything was there, so that is how I molded the character, just by looking back at all the audition process. Mark had this idea in his head of what he had to be and I had the script to work off of so I kind of just….smushed, I’m not really sure that is a real word but I’m going to use it.
It’s a word.
Yeah? cool, cool. So I smushed all of those elements I had, all those little pieces, I smushed those together. Three times I used that word there!
What was your favorite Christian scene to film? Is there a scene that you were nervous to film?
There is never anything I don’t want to do. If I see something in the script that is challenging that is always like my favorite bit to get to. If we have to cry, or to do anything dangerous or epic those are my favorite bits to go for. But when I read the script it was the ending which I can’t talk about because I don’t want to spoil. I’ve already done that with my housemate and he was really upset but when I read that in the script I was very excited to kind of get that up on its feet but then it got rewritten. We had the ending in the script originally then Dan came up to me one day and said yeah we are not doing this anymore we’re doing this. I was like that’s awesome too! When I read the script I was like that is going to be a fun day.
What was it like to use fire as Christian’s element?
I was so excited to get to play with fire. It was unreal. We toyed around with the idea early on with this special gel where they could set my hands on fire. I could have done all this crazy stuff with it but we ended up not using it. We had live fire on the set for the whole ending sequence but again, I’m not allowed to mention, but it was cool. We had fire very close to my body at one point and the stunt and safety team had gotten to know me by then and they knew I was pretty clumsy and dumb at times. They were like, “don’t put your hands in the fire whatever you do.” I was like, “Cool. I will try to do that guys, not put my hands in open flame.”
What was it like working with Mark Waters?
What was it like working with a script by Dan Waters?
It was awesome. When I say he came up and said, “change this,” it sounds like a dictator or monster but he’s not like that at all. He is completely the opposite. He is kind of open to if we think maybe we should do something different or maybe something else should happen. Especially being that Christian has a British accent and so does Lissa. Obviously Dan and Mark are both American if we were to say something like I don’t think a British person would say it this way. They were very open. Dan is also wicked funny – rude at times – but very funny.
What would Christian’s theme song be?
If Christian had a theme song?
Yes, theme song.
Wow, that’s come out of nowhere. Hmm, I’m like, “quick think of something..” but they’re like, all lame songs….no I can’t give you those. I think it would probably change throughout the film but at the beginning he would definitely be a Rage Against the Machine type of guy. He would probably plug that in and drown the world away. Let his anger simmer internally.
What was it like filming scenes with Lucy?
The first few days were nerve wracking. I was cast late in the game. I was cast and two or three days later we went to table read. We didn’t really have rehearsal time, Mark doesn’t really believe in it because if you rehearse it and get it done amazingly that means you kill that take which completely makes sense.
Which other character would you like to play and why?
Ohh interesting one….It would probably be either Dmitri or Gabriella, because they are so kickass. I got to work some of their fight scenes which are just, they’re mind blowing. Probably one of those two because they are cool and composed and they have a very military vibe about them. They are all very prim and proper but at the same time they can kick some serious booty. I just said booty, what’s going on with my words? This is terrible. People are going to think I’m an idiot.
Do you have a message for the fans?
It would be: thank you. For all of the support you have given us and being so nice to us. The MTV Movie Brawl is going on right now and they are so 100% behind us. Thank you, is all I can say. I wish I had more eloquent words, more poetic words, to give you but thanks is all I’ve got.