Fun With Fangs
By Vernon Scott, UPI Hollywood Reporter
November 18, 1994
It's a very good time for drinking blood and baring fangs if box-office champion ''Interview With the Vampire'' is any indication. For that reason, ''Forever Knight,'' the only TV series with the dubious distinction of featuring a vampire cop, has embarked on a campaign to capitalize on the fun and games of the bloodsucking community. Vampires, not agents.
Chief among the defenders of vampire rights is Geraint Wyn Davies, the Welsh-born Canadian who stars in the title role of Nick Knight. Knight sleeps by day and catches felons by night. Knight works nights because that's when vampires operate. The company can't shoot day-for- night. Or day-for-Knight, as the case may be. However, day and night Knight's refrigerator is stocked with wine bottles brimming with blood.
For the first time since Bram Stoker wrote about Count Dracula in the last century, a vampire is seen as a good guy. Last season ''Forever Knight'' was broadcast by CBS. This year's 26 new episodes are in first-run syndication. Actor Davies happily explains that Knight has been a vampire for 780 years. He is suffering guilt at his consumption of fresh blood over the centuries. Now he wants to atone. A fat lot of good that does his thousands of victims. ''Well, Knight became a police officer to give something back to society,'' Davies said in Knight's defense. ''He also doesn't drink human blood anymore. Just cows blood.'' Fat lot of good that does a herd of Guernseys. ''It's bizarre, but there you are. He's become a guy in a white hat chasing bad guys. It's a morality, or should I say mortality, play. The stories touch on huge issues.'' Tissues, maybe.
Most of the time Knight looks like any other cop, but when the madness is upon him he sprouts fangs and his eyes turn an opaque blue. Weird. Undeterred, Knight continued, ''With the upswing in fascination for vampire lore and Frankenstein and Dracula, we're riding the crest of a wave.
''Perhaps the rage will continue with Anne Rice's fourth volume of the popular Vampire Chronicles, 'The Tale of the Body Thief.' ''Our show goes hand in hand with the cult status that has grown up around vampires.'' Davies, who makes his home in Canada, where ''Forever Knight'' is filmed, has come to know more about vampires than a decent person should. He must be taken at his word when he denies being a vampire, despite his predilection for red wine. ''Did you realize there are more than 800 people in the United States who are self-admitted vampires?'' he asked. ''They drink blood and all that sort of thing. ''Mind you, I'm not defending vampires. Our show includes a bad vampire, LaCroix. He gave Knight his immortality. And we have a beautiful vampire, Janette, Knight's former lover. '
'I'm fortunate that when Knight travels through space as a vampire it isn't done with special effects. There's sort of a pouf and he finds himself at his destination. ''It's a pretty wild premise, but we make it work instead of having a stuntman suspended on a wire.
''The only way this sort of gothic pop entertainment works is if the audience suspends disbelief for a few minutes. Melodrama is a difficult thing to play. ''We act the roles in 1994 style, not '20s baroque performing as they did in 'Sunset Boulevard.'''
It's a good thing Bela Lugosi isn't around to hear that sort of heresy. Davies went on, ''It isn't easy to keep from going over the top when you have a mouthful of fangs and your eyes are covered by special lenses. ''When Knight and the others are seen as vampires, they become something like fast-moving cougars or jaguars, very feline creatures. Not howling wolves.
''Of course our vampires cannot expose themselves to sunlight without burning up. But we aren't vulnerable to stakes in their hearts or silver bullets.'' Yet they shrink away in terror when a crucifix or cross is brandished in their direction. So far as is known, nobody has tried to ward them off with a star of David. ''Actually, Knight is attempting to return to human life by exposing himself a little at a time to sunlight,'' Davis said. ''It is going very slowly.
''Mainly we rely on the spiritual elements of vampires. ''The most enjoyable parts are flashbacks to the 13th century, different time periods and specific events of the past. In addition to the occult, we become a time travel show. ''It is all traceable to Vlad the Impaler who supposedly inspired tales of vampires. But my knowledge of history on these things is very sketchy.
''The greatest drawbacks to playing a vampire are comments of people who recognize you. I'm not even immune at home. ''Sometimes my wife sees me in makeup and says, 'Get a life!'''