By Christina Radish
In the new MGM film Blood & Chocolate, based on the book of the same name, Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner) has sought refuge in Bucharest, after her family is killed by a pack of angry men, for the secret they carried in their blood. No longer a young girl, Vivian spends her days working at a chocolate shop, trying to live a normal life, while the only times she feels truly free are when she is running through the woods around the city, unleashing her true inner wolf.
When Vivian meets Aiden Galvin (Hugh Dancy), an artist researching Bucharest’s ancient art and relics for his next graphic novel based on the mythology of the loup garoux -- shapeshifters whose power to change effortlessly into the forms of both human and wolf was once considered holy among men -- the powerful and enigmatic pack leader, Gabriel (Olivier Martinez), gets a bit territorial, as he believes Vivian is destined to be his new bride. As Vivian and Aiden get closer, her love for him threatens to cast him to the very wolves who saved her life, and who are waiting for their chance to hunt him as prey.
Impressing director Katja von Garnier with a combination of sensitivity and toughness, 21-year-old actress Agnes Bruckner was attracted to the role because of her longtime interest in werewolf and vampire stories. An outgrowth of mythology as old as civilization itself, tales of werewolves and shapeshifters have cropped up around disappearances, murders, violence and death throughout history.
“I loved the idea of playing a werewolf because I just think it’s such a cool story, and they’re very cool legends,” the daughter of a Russian mother and Hungarian father tells Mediablvd Magazine. “I’ve always been attracted to those kinds of stories. When I was little, I used to want to be a witch. I actually went to what I thought was a witchcraft store and got a book, and then came home and realized it was a witch cookbook, but there were a couple spells in it, to make rain and stuff. I remember my cousin and I went outside and followed the instructions, getting a bowl of rice with water and throwing it in the air, but it didn’t rain, so I got really mad and stopped wanting to be a witch.”
{quote_top}French actor Olivier Martinez was von Garnier’s first and only choice for playing Gabriel, the leader of the loup garoux. And, the 41-year-old Martinez tells Mediablvd that he was interested in the role because there were no grotesque werewolf transformations involved.
“As an actor, you never know how the special effects are going to end up, when you are dealing with horror make-up. Sometimes it works extremely well, and sometimes it looks ridiculous. At least, in this case, I knew that my part would be done by a real wolf, and I thought that was cool.”
Having had a fascination with wolves, since before he was cast in the film, Martinez says that he was interested in werewolf legends growing up. “It’s a metaphorical way to explain the animal part, which is inside us. It dates back to the Middle Ages in Europe. It was not invented in Romania. I think it comes from human beings wanting to transpose their wild side through supernatural characters. In Europe, wolves had a very negative image because they were competitive with human beings in hunting because they are great hunters. But, if you look at other civilizations, like the American Indians, it is a totem animal, and a positive.”
Even though they are wild animals, the opportunity to work directly with the wolves was something that appealed to both Bruckner and Martinez. “When you hear you’re going to be working with wolves, it’s kind of weird, but it was also fun,” says Bruckner. “They were really cool. The Hungarian guy that owns them, Zoltan, has such a special relationship with them. He would stand around them, in a group, and start howling, and then they would start howling. It was great.”
“You must have respect for them, and no fear,” adds Martinez. “If they smell your fear, you become potential prey. You cannot mess with them, and that’s what I like about them. I’m scared to death of crocodiles, but not wolves. I’m fascinated by wolves. I can identify with wolves because I never submit to anyone, ever. You can kill me, but you can’t make me submit.”
{quote_middle}At times vicious, Martinez admits that he doesn’t see Gabriel as an evil character, but rather as someone who is protective of his pack family. “From the point of view of a human being, maybe my character is bad. But, from the point of view of a wolf, he’s a hero trying to survive when humans want to make his breed extinct. Human beings kill millions of wolves. In this story, wolves have killed, maybe, dozens of human beings. I don’t think the balance is equal. So, if you’re a wolf, you hate men.”
Martinez says that he is the type of actor who likes to thoroughly research any role he decides to take on. In the case of Gabriel, he not only read about wolves, but also went to observe their behavior because he wanted to learn as much as he could about them.
“I don’t take myself too seriously, but I take my job seriously,” declares Martinez. “I had to have a Romanian accent, so I had to leave my French accent behind. Aside from the accent, I had to study the wolves’ behavior. I read books, and I have a friend who is a specialist on vampires and werewolves that I went to see, and he was a big help. He gave me descriptions about how werewolves are represented in our civilization. Then, I had to go face the wolves themselves.”
“You’d better study what you do,” he continues. “Otherwise, what’s the point? If I play a biker in a movie and don’t know how to ride a bike, I’m not doing my job properly. If I do a role, it’s because I’m going to learn that role. That’s a gift, for an actor. We get to play bull-fighters, sailors, cooks and presidents, even though we’re not. Research is how you get a feeling of it, and I love that. I have many lives because of that, even if it’s not a true life. I find the experimentation through a role interesting. In this case, it happened to be about wolves.”
For Bruckner, who has quite a bit of emotional work to do in the film, the physical stuff proved to be more difficult. “For the transformation, they had to make a cast of the front of my body, from my knees to my neck, and they put the cast onto one of those caterpillar-like machines, and it was on a stick. I looked like a human shish-kabob for a day. I was on the cast, with my dress over it so I couldn’t fall out, and it was so painful and exhausting. It’s hard to actually act while you’re doing things like that, and flying through the air.”
While Martinez is looking for his next project, Bruckner has just finished hers -- a horror thriller called Last Resort, also starring Taryn Manning, Patrick Flueger (The 4400) and Teddy Dunn (Veronica Mars), in which a group of friends that visit a remote vacation home to celebrate their college graduation are forced into a game where they have to kill each other in order to survive.
{quote_bottom}“It’s the directorial debut of Chris Moore, who produced all of the American Pie movies. It’s just very fun to work on those types of films. The whole environment is so different. When you’re on a horror set, people are walking around with sliced throats and blood all over them, and it’s just fun. It’s like you’re 10 years old, making a movie, and I enjoy it a lot.”
