TORONTO – In 1992, the son of Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Coppola, implored his father to cast a then-unknown Monica Bellucci in his film Dracula. Mostly a model at the time, Bellucci was a photographer’s dream, and her appearance in Italy’s Zoom Magazine caught the eye of young Coppola. So impressed was Francis with her look that he cast the inexperienced actress as one of the three brides of Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Thirty years later, yet another Italian actress is set to explode – internationally – after being cast in the next iteration of Dracula.
The actress is Matilda De Angelis and this Dracula – titled Dracula: A Love Tale – is directed by the iconic French filmmaker Luc Besson, known for his stylized action films like The Professional, The Fifth Element and Taken. In the title role as the Prince of Darkness is Caleb Landry Jones, who is joined by the Oscar winner Christoph Waltz, Matilda De Angelis and Zoë Bleu.
The casting even seems fated, as De Angelis who was born in 1995 was named after a character in Besson’s 1994 film The Professional. “I have learned to be very careful in expressing my desires because I am lucky and things do come true. But Besson was already a dream, my name is Matilda because my mother saw The Professional (starring a young Nathalie Portman in the role of Mathilda) when she was pregnant”.
Unlike Bellucci at the time, De Angelis has already built an impressive resume including her role in the Netflix Original film Rose Island, for which she won a David di Donatello award (Best Supporting Actress). American audiences will know her from the HBO miniseries The Undoing, about a young girl (De Angelis) who comes between a successful New York couple played by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
De Angelis: “I hope to work abroad as much as possible and I am not just talking about America. But as an actress I choose very little, I have to be chosen, it is part of the game. What I try to do is to be as passive as possible, I always try to stay connected to my fantasies, to my inner world, in a job that is 90% out of my control”. Her willingness to perform internationally is especially welcomed in an era where Hollywood seems starved of native-Italian actors.
Contrary to Michele Morrone’s latest rants about the “cliquey” and “talentless” pool of actors in Italy, there is an abundance of talent – still untapped by Hollywood. The real dilemma is that not all Italian actors aspire to work in America, and much of it rests on their reluctance to learn the language. While there’s nothing “wrong” with that choice which is theirs to make, it creates a void for Hollywood’s casting directors who then hire Spaniards, Latin Americans and Americans to play Italian characters. The result: a warped depiction of Italians.
Luc Besson’s Dracula film is set for release in theatres on July 30th 2025.
In the pics: Matilda De Angelis and Luc Besson; the poster of the film
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
