Lara Pulver felt “animalistic” while wearing fangs for Underworld: Blood Wars.
The British actress joins the fifth instalment of the supernatural films as Semira, an evil leader of a vampire coven who is after hero Selene, reprised by Kate Beckinsale. Joking she got into her dark mind set by making sure she “looks good in black”, handling the prosthetics was a whole new challenge.
“Mainly it’s learning to speak with them,” she explained to SFX magazine. “We had our daily fangs! You have your softer fangs and then you have your battle fangs. It’s weird how comfortable you become with them. What’s slightly disconcerting is that if you watch the playback you don’t look like yourself – they change your face shape. They heighten your bone structure, make you more sullen, make your jaw look more pronounced. It’s borderline animalistic, I guess.”
In order to nail playing one of the film’s villains Lara avoided acting too much like a “caricature” as she feels there’s a fine line between being a convincing antagonist and being a “pantomime villainess”.
Although it’s the latest in a long line of Underworld films, it’s the brunette beauty’s first, and she jumped right into the genre.
“It’s fast, slick and it doesn’t take itself too seriously,” she smiled. “Anna Foerster, our director, has such a wonderful wit and zest for life, and it’s so evident in this film. It’s hugely helped my character, because she is so fun and sexy and badass. It just has space for that.”
Lara is no stranger to playing a powerful female, having portrayed Irene Adler in hit TV series Sherlock opposite Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, turning her into an overnight sensation. Quizzed on whether there’s room for her character to return, the 36-year-old confessed she was as clueless as the rest of us.
“I don’t know how the boys have gone back season after season. Maybe it’s best to leave with your head held high,” she sighed.
