Forget CGI — the actor who plays Dracula in
"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" has another trick up his sleeve.
In Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula," the titular Count travels from his remote castle in the
Carpathian Mountains to a new home in England on a ship called the Demeter. He travels with
multiple coffins filled with earth and is sealed in a coffin of his own. Weeks after departing,
the Demeter drifts into Whitby Harbor. No one is on board. Instantly, readers can connect the dots:
Dracula — requiring human blood to survive — snuck out of his coffin at night to pick off
the Demeter's crew one by one. The reader is left to imagine their harrowing experience.
However, thanks to André Øvredal's upcoming,
long-gestating film "The Last Voyage of the Demeter", one no longer needs to imagine.
"Evil is on board. Powerful evil."
The film is set entirely on the Demeter, depicting the crew discovering their
dwindling numbers and the slow realization that a demonic vampire may be on board.
Dracula is played by Spanish actor Javier Botet, an experienced actor when it comes to
playing monsters and creatures. Botet has already appeared in several high-profile genre pictures,
usually covered in makeup — such as the title character in Andy Muschietti's
"Mama," and the leprous hobo in the same director's "It" movies.
"Do you think this will help me, Eddie?"
He also played the titular "Slender Man", the Crooked Man in "The Conjuring 2",
and Key Face in "Insidious: The Last Key." He even
provided the motion capture performance for the monsters in "Alien: Covenant."
Botet is often cast as monsters and ghosts largely because of his striking
and appealing looks. He stands at 6'7" and lives with a rare condition called Marfan
Syndrome — which gives him long fingers and loose joints. As he recently told the BBC,
he uses his hyper-elasticity as a performing advantage.
Marfan Syndrome, a genetic condition, affects the joints and connective tissues in the human body,
causing them to loosen and elongate. Those with the syndrome typically have
very long fingers and toes, tend to stand tall and thin, and have curved spines.
It's not a serious condition, and those who have it live ordinarily long lives. However,
the condition does have the potential to cause complications in one's vision
thanks to a loosening of the ocular connective tissue; at its worst, it can affect the heart.
The syndrome also leaves one astonishingly flexible,
and Botet has been able to contort his body in a way most ordinary
contortionists cannot — a talent he has always possessed. He recalled to the BBC:
"I have a disease called Marfan syndrome. It makes people skinnier,
taller, and very flexible. So I was all my life very flexible,
all my life doing weird tricks and things to enjoy with my friends [using] very creepy movement."
In 2005, when Botet was 28, he landed his first film acting role, playing "humanoid creature" in
Brian Yuzna's "Beneath Still Waters". Two years later, he landed a plum role in the
first of two "[REC]" movies wherein he played a Portuguese girl named Tristana who was infected
with a sort of demon virus. While promoting the sequel "[REC]²" at a horror convention in Spain,
Botet was approached by Muschietti about the possibility of appearing in a short called
"Mama." He accepted. A year after, Guillermo del Toro was to produce
an English-language remake of the short, and Botet was officially on the Hollywood scene.
Guillermo would eventually cast Botet in three different ghost
roles in his haunted house picture "Crimson Peak."
Botet's movements are so eerie and unique that many audience members assume that his roles are
constructed through elaborate CGI. Botet wanted to go on the record to explain that it's all him.
Some of the makeup effects and hair are enhanced with CGI,
but that is his face and his body. About "Mama" in particular, he told the BBC:
"So nobody really knew that 90% of what they saw was totally mine, was physical
work. [...] So that was the real point that makes my career grow. Because a lot of people
knew that my work without CGI is almost as good — it doesn't need much more help in digital."
Botet went on to elaborate that he prefers real performances in horror movies, saying:
"When there's something digital,
anything can happen. It's like a cartoon — you lose the scare and the fear."