Blade - The Film That Kick-Started The Marvel Movie Invasion
With Mahershala Ali set to reinvent Marvel's Daywalker, the original Blade's Stephen Dorff explains how playing a megalomaniacal vampire did wonders for his profile.
Stephen Dorff shakes his head and sighs. “I’d made some pretty good movies before I made Blade. The Power Of One, S.F.W., I Shot Andy Warhol - you know, I’d played Stuart Sutcliffe in Backbeat, I’d worked with Jack Nicholson on Blood And Wine. But the impact of that one movie, Blade, was extraordinary. People just love their vampire stories, I guess.”
Based upon the cult Marvel Comics series, Blade was very much Wesley Snipes’s baby, the New Jack City performer serving as both leading man and producer. But if the charismatic Daywalker was the undoubted star of the show, the role of would-be vampire kingpin Deacon Frost allowed Dorff to steal umpteen scenes. Before he could truly sink his teeth into the part, the former child star had to address some issues he had with Snipes.
As he explains, “Wesley can be pretty intimidating. He’s great but he’s an extreme talent. To begin with, I was having some problems with character motivation and with the set being such a bustling place. You know, this was my biggest movie to date, or at least, that’s what it felt like. Since he was also wearing his producer’s hat, Wesley was determined we didn’t get behind. In the end, he took me to one side and said that, whatever my concerns were, I should try and trust him. Of course, trust, like respect, isn’t something that’s quickly established. But we were so pressed for time that we had to get it together. So, while it wasn’t there from the off, pretty soon we had each other’s back.”
Indeed, once they finally arrived on the same page, Snipes and Dorff more than delivered. Aided by a smart script by David S Goyer (co-author of the Christopher Nolan Batman series) and audacious work from FX wizard-turned-film director Stephen Norrington, the future star of Public Enemies and The Iceman found himself the recipient of the MTV Video Award for Best Villain. But if Blade’s a film he still feels a great fondness for (“The fans are still mad for it”), his enthusiasm is dented by the raw hand that’s been dealt to the man who brought the Daywalker to life.
“Stephen Norrington’s a brilliant man. I sensed greatness in him the first time I met him. He’s also really generous – all the ideas I had for Deacon Frost, he was more than happy to incorporate them. Sadly for me, as both an actor and a big movie fan, Stephen had such a rough time shooting The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he decided to withdraw from the filmmaking process. This guy has no end of great ideas but he’s been burned to the point he’s not willing to go through it all again. On the one hand, I’m happy for him that he doesn’t have to deal with all the shit, but on the other, I’d kill to see another Stephen Norrington movie.”