– Blood Relations –
by Yolanthe Fawehinmi | Hull Daily Mail | October 23, 2024
With the release of Sky Original’s The Radleys, we chat with Damian Lewis about the subtle themes that run throughout the film about a family of vampires.
Damian Lewis says actors can be “greedy” when it comes to the craft. It’s why the 53-year-old British actor and musician didn’t think twice when he was asked to play a dual role in the new Sky Original film The Radleys – in which he portrays twins Peter and Will Radley.
“It was two for the price of one – they got me cheap,” jokes London-born Lewis, who rose to prominence as US Army Major Richard Winters in 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, and won a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the Showtime hit series Homeland.
“No, just joking, I think it was just interesting,” he adds of the decision to have two characters played by one actor. “There’s Dead Ringers, which stars Jeremy Irons, and other good examples doing this before. It plays weirdly, in a meta way, on the audience’s mind, and it can be fun seeing an actor play two different parts. Once they decided to make them [Peter and Will] twins, that was a fun way presumably to attract an actor as well – we are nothing if not greedy when it comes to acting, me in particular.”
“So to play two roles in a film and explore what these two characters essentially represent – our sensible, rational selves, and then the darker sides in all of us, the naughty sides that you know come out on a Friday night…”
“These are the two sides we all tussle with and exist in all of us individually, and vampire movies re very good at exploring them.”
The vampire thriller, adapted from the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by bestselling author Matt Haig, follows the Radleys – a supposedly ordinary English family who are actually abstaining vampires, who choose not to drink blood despite their natural cravings.
But only the parents – Peter Radley (Lewis) and Helen Radley, played by BAFTA-nominated and Primetime Emmy Award-winning Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald, 48, whose previous credits include Nanny McPhee and Line of Duty – know about the family’s true nature.
Their teenage children, vegan Clara Radley (played by British actress Bo Bragason, 20, who stars in Disney’s new flagship show Renegade Nell), and lovesick Rowan (British actor Harry Baxendale, 19, who also stars in Shadow and Bone), have no idea bout their family’s true identities until their bloodthirsty instincts take over.
This opens the door for an extended family member, Will Radley (also Lewis), to re-enter and upend the Radleys’ once-perfect slice of suburbia.
“There is a sibling rivalry in this film, because of jealousy and a misunderstanding,” says Lewis, who is also an executive producer through his production company, Ginger Biscuit Entertainment. The musician’s new single, Suck My Blood, also features on the film’s soundtrack.
“Peter has foregone all his vampire powers by choosing this new life. So he’s forced to bring the wicked uncle in, because he still has all of his powers and can fix the problem.”
“Will Radley seems like a high-status rock-and-roll character, but he’s actually threatened and feels patronized and condescended to by Peter, who is older by a few minutes in our version of the story. He has always felt an inferiority because of that.”
“You might suggest that it’s why he [Will] went off the rails and is committed to this life of hedonism, immortality, blood-sucking and fun. And he certainly seems happier than Peter, who’s miserable because he’s moved his family to this dead-end suburb and deprived everyone of the one thing they all need – their oxygen – which is blood.”
The Radleys also represent that sense of feeling “other” and not fitting in, which Lewis believes is “a nice subtle message” which runs throughout the film.
“They do feel different, especially Rowan. He’s experiencing love for another boy and doesn’t quite know how to share that either. And so he feels different. He feels like a freak. And to start with, he doesn’t know why, then it becomes clear when he realizes he’s a vampire. But it’s a lovely message throughout the movie,” says Lewis.
“And there’s a lovely tender end of the movie when he and his new boyfriend (Evan Copeleigh, played by Titans actor Jay Lycurgo, 26), are experiencing love for the first time. But there’s a twist, where he has to make a deal with the devil at the same time.”
“It’s also a coming-of-age love story.”
“Vampire genres and horror comedies have a tendency to put characters in absurd and extreme situations, where they are forced to grapple with their mortality. But there can be lots of relatable themes alongside this,” notes Lewis.
“Once you become a vampire you live eternally, but you’re a pleasure-seeker – so lust, sex, sensuality, all those things that we all quite like, but that’s a life you’re committed to. But actually, a lot of us seek love and joy, the more spiritual side of life and those are the two things that exist in every vampire movie. You can’t have both. So you choose, right?”
“And then, of course, vampire movies can become camp and gothic and fun, and then they become comedic and funny and absurd and over-the-top. So there’s sort of everything in vampire movie for a good time,” says Lewis.
“What I would say about our film, is that it’s very much contained by this family dynamic. They’re a real family. Peter is a doctor, Helen is a mum, the two kids are at school.”
“They’re living this normal life that we all relate to. Even the vampire brother that’s brought in is an English lecturer at a university, so everything in this vampire film happens within the confines of real life, which hopefully gives it its oddity and comedy.”
Read the rest of the original article at PressReader