Colin Farrell Is Funny But 'Sinister' In 'Fright Night,' Director Says

'I just felt like he could really walk that tightrope,' Craig Gillespie tells MTV News during Sneak Peek Week.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Colin Farrell in "Fright Night"
Photo: DreamWorks

MTV's Sneak Peek Week has a lot to offer film fans in addition to exclusive screenings of highly anticipated upcoming movies, including our post-event Q&A sessions when the stars answer questions from the audience and reveal insider info about their projects.

At Monday evening's kickoff event with the vampire horror/comedy "Fright Night," Christopher Mintz-Plasse and director Craig Gillespie talked at length about why vampires are still hot commodities and how Colin Farrell came to take on his fang-tastic role.

"I think, honestly, [with] vampires, it's one of those things that actors love to do, because you're getting to play sort of an iconic kind of character that has all this history," Gillespie said of an actor's desire to sink his or her teeth into playing the undead. "You get to have a lot of fun with it, because there's this sense that it's not in reality.

"With Colin, it's a very dark character, but he has a humor about him," Gillespie added. "He's very sinister. Just trying to get somebody that can play that, walk that line, [like] he had in 'In Bruges,' which he's so funny in, and then he's played the very dramatic stuff, so I just felt like he could really walk that tightrope."

Mintz-Plasse added that although Farrell had a knack for tapping into the dark and comedic aspects of his character, Jerry the vampire, he also had a little fun with impersonating one of the more iconic vampires in cinematic history.

"It was really actually awesome to watch him act as a vampire," Mintz-Plasse said. "He would do however many takes he needed to do as that character, and then at the end of every [take], he would do his kind of 'Charlie, I'm coming for you' Dracula impression at the end. You could put together this whole [other] movie with Colin doing a Dracula impression. It's really, really cool to watch."

When we suggested that Gillespie add Farrell's creative interpretations to the DVD, he seemed receptive to the idea, so fingers crossed we see more of Farrell vamping it up, Dracula-style.

Will vampires and werewolves own the 2011 MTV Movie Awards? Can wizards or dream thieves steal the Golden Popcorn? Find out June 5, when the 20th annual show airs live at 9 p.m. ET/PT. To get into the magical movie mood, we have Sneak Peek Week — five days of exclusives and interviews with the casts of "Fright Night," "Horrible Bosses" and more. Check out everything there is to know about Sneak Peek Week and the Movie Awards at MovieAwards.MTV.com!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1664848/fright-night-colin-farrell-movie-awards.jhtml

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