I caught up with Peta at a press day in New York City, where she talked about playing a vampire in the film and also about working with that James Bond guy…

UGO: What did you use for inspiration to play a vampire?

Peta Wilson: Well, first I read Dracula. He was an inspiration, not Mina Harker, because the film happens after the book of Dracula. It's in the future and [asks], "How would it be having Dracula live inside of you?" I read all about him, and then I watched Nosferatu. And then I read anything I could find on vampires. I searched the Internet and went on strange websites. I read about David Icke, the guy that writes all these weird theories and took me to this word of reptilians. I kind of got tripped out by the ideas that royal families have been vampiric, especially the ones in Eastern Europe. They used to think that bathing themselves in human blood would keep them young. So I looked at the narcissism of all that, that insatiable hunger for something.

But then I looked at panthers and jaguars, and I thought of them more like cats, and the idea that a vampire is going to get eventually what it wants. They don't sit back, they're not like other animals. Finally, it was the character Isadora Duncan, and the fact that she was almost like a human vampire. She chewed through men like she did dance numbers. She couldn't get enough, she needed it, because she was so masculine, too. It's almost as if she preyed upon men to keep that man in her life. It's different than Mina, but I sort of looked at that and connected with her.

And then [there was] my baby, because as I was playing a vampire, he was three months old and I was breastfeeding him. I'd be in my outfit in the film, and I couldn't get that corset off quick enough and he'd be ripping at it. And I would see him, and these sounds that were coming out of him were so primal. It was a human need that he could not live without that milk. And he would scream and cry and be ferocious until he got it. And then he'd be so satisfied when he got it and after he'd be done, this bliss would be on him. So I thought, "I could play a vampire in a very human way."

UGO: How was it being the only woman on set with all these dashing gentlemen?

PW: I wasn't the only woman. I didn't feel like the only woman, because there were loads of women on set. Someone asked me, though, "Did you feel empowered?" When I first saw the movie, I felt a bit nervous, because all the boys were kind of peacocking around and they have this great kaleidoscope of performances. Mina is so centered, and fighting really hard to control those emotions. I was concentrating really hard on staying in the time period and making sure no one would see the unvirtuous character living inside of me. "Why is that woman so uptight?" It's because she has this big secret, whatever it is. So I didn't notice that I was the only woman.

UGO: But as a woman, did you notice Sean Connery?

PW: Of course! How can you not be?

UGO: What is it about him? Why is he still so hot?

PW: You know what it is? He's part gypsy. You know how gypsies can attract you. And he's been a movie star longer than I've been alive. He's got that voice, and he's a great dancer. He's a jazz man; he loves jazz. We were all out one night, and we were dancing, and I realized that he was dancing to his own beat. I was not going to be keeping up, but he sort of lifted me off the ground and it looked like I was dancing with him, but he was dancing with ME, holding me. And it may have looked like I knew what I was doing, like we were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but I was no Ginger!

He's full of charm and sort of the classic, old school gentleman. One night, I went to dinner with his wife, and I was walking home, and he said, "You can't walk home." I said, "No, I'm fine. It'll just be five minutes." And he walked me home. People were stopping their cars, going, "Oh, my God." And he just gave a nice, pleasant smile and he continued our conversation and walked me to my door for the night. And I thought that was kind of nice. That's why he's Sean Connery, because he does that. It just happened upon him that he became a movie star. I think he's essentially been a man's man. He's so gracious. I will say, though, that his hands are as soft as my baby's bottom. It's not like he's ever mowed the lawn. He's a movie star, and he's great and charismatic, but has he ever had to fix the pipes? I don't know.

UGO: Were you intimidated at all by him when you had to do an impression of him for the movie?

PW: I wasn't intimidated by Sean, but I was extremely grateful to him, because he cast me in this part. I was in Australia, having just had a baby and walked away from big opportunities, and he saw my show and went, "Who's she?" I had three hours of material. Five days later, I'm on the plane with my mum and my baby.

"No imitating Connery," that was his rule. "You're not allowed to look at Faye Dunaway." There are all these rules for certain actors. Tom Cruise has said, "If you're an ass, you're off the set. Only nice people work with him." Connery's rule is, "Don't do my voice." So of course as shooting started, the boys started recording his voice and playing them on the phones and answering machines, saying "Mom, it's Connery!" One day, Sean called up Shane West, and he wasn't as good doing his voice as the English boys and the Scottish boys. He thought it was Tony Curran playing Connery, so he comes up with his best Connery and it was actually Connery on the phone! So that was a little bit hairy the next day.

I have to do Connery on-screen, so I sort of rang him and said, "Look sir, I can just imitate you with an English accent. I don't have to do you, I don't have to do the voice." And he said, "No, no, no, you should do me." So I went home and practiced. After the dailies came in, I said, "So what did you think?" And he said, "You were great!" And I said, "Really?" He says, "Yeah, it's terrible! It's the worst impersonation I have ever heard, and it's perfect."

UGO: So what was the story behind the tension between Sean and director Stephen Norrington?

PW: My mind goes to, when this comes up, what did we not know between Tom Cruise and Stanley Kubrick? What happened there? What happened between Sam Peckinpah and Lee Marvin? What happened between John Houston and Jack Nicholson? I don't think it was a big deal. I think it was [a case of] Stephen's a vegan, Sean is a meat-eater. This is Stephen's third film, and he's a visionary genius, and is responsible for how the film looks. I think it's a departure and unusual, and we don't see these movies anymore these days. And Connery is old school. He's done 110 movies, but not one with so many special effects. It was just a different kind of movie for him.

UGO: If you could choose to have one superhero power, what would it be and why?