You work with seasoned actors, and sometimes you realize that they phone it in.

Dracula isn't just another vampire show. It's something entirely different that I personally feel I've never seen on American TV before.

Nowadays, everything is so gratuitous. The violence is suggested, and it's much more impactful than showing everything.

On network, you have limitations for how raunchy it can get and how violent it can get.

When I read the script, I said to one of the producers, "I know you probably want Jonathan Harker really fluffy, but I'm not gonna do that. It needs to be a mask. There needs to be a duel between Harker and Dracula."

I think it's very rare, as an actor, that you get to a script, or an idea of a script, and you go, "Oh, I just have to do that!" It fell into place very quickly.

Vampires have been romanticized, and this is bringing it right back to being vampiric. I think there's something sexy and raw about that.