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Maggie Gyllenhaal proves Van Helsing works better as a woman, and weighs in on Hugh Jackman’s infamous take on the character
Exclusive: When asked to imagine the vampire hunter from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, most Australians would picture Hugh Jackman’s leather-clad Van Helsing from 2004, not Maggie Gyllenhaal.
That’s about to change, thanks to Audible’s reimagined audio production of the 1897 gothic horror starring Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Bailey, Ella Purnell and Aimee Lou Wood.
Most Aussies know Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing, now Maggie Gyllenhaal has taken the reins. Universal/Getty
The Dark Knight actress, 48, has transformed Professor Van Helsing into an unlikely heroine for the project, delivering a performance that feels fresh despite how old the source material is.
She carefully avoided any films or TV shows featuring a male Van Helsing before recording Dracula to ensure they didn’t influence her version of the character.
That left her with an Australian-shaped blind spot.
“I didn’t even know Hugh Jackman played him,” she told nine.com.au, admitting she’d never even seen Van Helsing (2004).
“I just did my own thing. I had seen Nosferatu with Willem Dafoe [as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, a character inspired by Van Helsing],” she continued.
“He’s a great actor, so I saw him do it but mine’s very different. I wasn’t thinking about him.”
Changing Van Helsing into a woman made sense to Gyllenhaal from the second the script hit her desk, but not everyone was on board with her casting.
Reddit forums were awash with criticism and when the project was first announced. Fortunately, online chatter stopped affecting Gyllenhaal years a long time ago.
Transforming Van Helsing into a woman made total sense to Gyllenhaal. Audible
“It felt like a really natural fit to me. Sometimes that kind of gender switch feels weird, but it actually didn’t,” she said.
“Van Helsing’s position of being very smart, very very capable, but having ideas that are really outside the box, that are not always listened to, [and] freak people out ... is a very feminine position to find yourself in.”
She makes a valid point, and having listened to Audible’s Dracula it could be argued that Van Helsing works better as a woman.
The Van Helsing in Stoker’s classic novel spends countless pages trying to convince other characters to believe in his skills and expertise, something many women can relate to.
Making Van Helsing a woman also adds a new sense of danger when the character has to face-off against the terrifying Count Dracula, and a uniquely female feeling of catharsis when she emerges victorious.
Because women so rarely triumph – let alone survive – in such dark stories.
In preparation for Audible’s Dracula, Gyllenhaal avoided all other versions of the character. Benjamin Cremel/Getty
“It’s always interesting to work on something that has the capacity to actually scare you,” Gyllenhaal said of the audio production’s darker themes.
“Whether it’s in a horror genre or it’s just pushing the edges of what you know about yourself and the world.”
She’s certainly no stranger to films that push those boundaries.
One of her earliest acting roles was in psychological thriller Donnie Darko, where she starred alongside brother Jake, and she went on to tackle controversial topics in Secretary, Sherrybaby and The Dark Knight in the years that followed.
More recently, she wrote, directed and produced psychological thriller The Lost Daughter and gothic romance The Bride!, two films that prove her interest in exploring the darker corners of humanity lives on.
It should come as no surprise that she would jump at the chance to star in a new adaptation of one of the most legendary gothic stories of all time, even after an almost six-year break from acting.
Gyllenhaal’s Van Helsing is blunt, razor-sharp and willing to get her hands dirty, which contrasts brilliantly with Bailey’s sensual, seductive turn as Dracula.
The performances work so well together, it’s difficult to believe the actors behind them never actually met.
Jonathan Bailey leaned into the raw sex appeal of the world’s most iconic vampire for the new production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Audible
“I did it all alone at a different time, and so did everybody else,” she revealed, adding that she had to imagine how her co-stars might deliver each line.
“I didn’t act with any of them. I really wish I had, and I was surprised that that’s how they do it – but that’s how they do it.”
It’s hard to picture the woman nine.com.au spoke with – who talked with her hands, leaned in for every question, and was constantly in motion – shut in a recording booth reading lines alone for hours on end.
She also had to do it without two of her biggest tools as an actor: her face and body. Armed with only her voice, it was a very different acting experience.
Recording the production solo was a new and sometimes uncomfortable experience for Gyllenhaal, but she loves a challenge. Audible
Gyllenhaal agreed it wasn’t easy, but she’s always loved a challenge.
“Like all things that are new, it felt both somewhat uncomfortable and also exciting,” she said.
The likened the whole experience to a dramatic reading or a party where she never got to meet the other guests, and said her one regret was that she hadn’t been able to share a room with the whole cast or listen to their performances.
That last one, at least, she can rectify now Dracula has hit Audible.
“I’m sure when I hear it, I’ll be really surprised because I’m sure they’ll be very different from how I imagined them,” she laughed.
“That’s always the mark of good actors.”
