Seeing Dracula
in Real Life

No offense to Bela Lugosi, who, for those who don't know, defined Dracula on screen in 1931, but I think I prefer Gary Oldman. Firstly, the fact that he played this iconic character is already wild to me. From what I know of Gary Oldman now, and the roles I've seen him play over the years, I never would've thought he'd go for a character like that.

I've always thought he was too serious an actor to play Dracula, or any movie monster, for that matter. This may sound confusing since he played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films and Commissioner Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, but I didn't realize he was there. The first movie I ever noticed him in was Darkest Hour in 2017, when he won all those awards. Little did I know I'd already been watching him my whole life.

This should let you know just how young I am, but even as a Gen Z, I still loved him in Bram Stoker's Dracula. I appreciate how well he portrayed all sides of the iconic vampire, from the seductive aristocrat to the monstrous figure at night. His Dracula looked and felt more layered and tragic to me than the versions I'd grown up seeing parodied.

I can't even believe that the same actor portrayed Winston Churchill and Dracula. I watched both movies for the first time back-to-back in 2017, and both performances blew my mind. I really don't think we appreciate Gary Oldman enough as a brilliant actor. Yes, he won the Oscar for his performance in Darkest Hour, but I think he also deserves equal recognition for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

At least, I got into him just in time for his victory lap during that awards season. I got a spot in the fan bleachers at the Academy Awards in 2018, and that's where I met Gary Oldman and got him to sign my movie poster. Even in our brief encounter, I could tell he was over the moon since everyone knew that he was going to win that night.

Now that I think about it, it's wild I got Gary Oldman's autograph on the same night he won his first Academy Award. Like, how insane is that? Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things. An autograph is an autograph, no matter when or where you got it. But still, I think it makes that night, and that signature, even more memorable to me.

I still wish I got the rest of the cast to sign my poster, too, because damn! That was a stacked cast! The movie also starred Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Monica Bellucci, and even the legendary Anthony Hopkins. Imagine having a poster, or any memorabilia, with all their autographs on it.

The only other autograph I managed to get was the director's, Francis Ford Coppola. Side note: can you believe the guy who made The Godfather movies and Apocalypse Now also directed Bram Stoker's Dracula? The more I know about this film, the wilder it gets. From its cast to its director, it had a lot of heavy hitters.

I finally met and got Coppola's autograph at the 2024 New York Film Festival, where he brought his magnum opus, Megalopolis, for an advance screening and conversation. Now that was a strange movie, and years later, I still can't say that I fully understood it. But at least I got the iconic director to sign the same poster that night.