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When fans sitdown in movie theaters to watch Blade 2 this month, they'll meetNomak, a frightening mutant vampire bent on destroying his blood-sucking brethren.Comics2Film got a chance to chat with Luke Goss, the affable Englishactor under the Nomak makeup, now poised to take Hollywood by bloodstorm.
One may besurprised to learn that Goss has already enjoyed a music career that many wouldenvy. As a teenager he was a member of the boy band "Bros", achart-topping success that played venues like Wembley Arena, Madison SquareGarden and The Forum in L.A. But at the pinnacle of success Goss bowed out ofthe music in pursuit of something better.
"After 5 years of it I'd had enough for 10lifetimes," Goss told C2F. "You've done the jets and you've done the helicopters, the body guards, thevalets, the assistants and it's all kind of exactly as you imagined and probablycrazier. I found myself at 23 years of age I was thinking, 'the only thing Ican do now is sustain it.'"
Goss quit theband and penned the best-selling autobiography, "I Owe You Nothing".Shortly thereafter he took a role in a stage production of the Ed Wood cultclassic Plan 9 From Outer Space. It was there that he got theacting bug.
"The very first show, I was standing on stage, and I fell in love the very firstday," Goss told us. "The camaraderie we had on that play was more solidthan I'd acquired in myfive years in music."
After steadywork in the U.K. theater he went on to appear in a handful of English films.From there it was on to Hollywood where he landed a part in Zigzag,which happens to be the directorial debut of Blade 2 writer andexecutive producer David Goyer.
After workingwith Goss, Goyer told director Guillermo del Toro that he thought he had foundtheir Nomak. "So I had a meeting with Guillermo. I gave them my take on Nomak and it was much deeperthan what was on the page. At that moment it could have been played by a stunt guy."
Goss hoped totake the role of the nemesis beyond a simple good vs. bad paradigm. "[Therole] focused, quiteunderstandably, the energy towards your adversary Blade. But my point was, thatwas already kind of a given. There's a line in the film where I say, 'is the enemyof my enemy my friend or my enemy,' which sums up my confusion with Blade,"Goss said. "There's a plot there that was veryclear to me. It was: if we can stand on common ground then why should wefight?"
Aside from thecommonality with Blade, Goss found another interesting facet of the Nomakcharacter. The villain is a tormented soul, driven by the hatred inflicted onhim. "The bigger issue is my father Damaskinos who basically hunted me like ananimal and I'm his son, or technically his creation."
Apparently DelToro like the actor's insights. After a nerve-jangling waiting period Gosslearned he had gotten the part. "It was a great night. I was jumping up and down likekid because I loved thefirst movie, so to get to play the nemesis in this one, I knew it would befun."
Shooting thebig-budget Hollywood movie in Prague was unlike any films that Goss had workedon in the past. "It wasn't even like starting in the shallow end and swimming to the deep end.This was diving straight into the deep end of Hollywood, high-budget films.It was insane," Goss remarked.
"The sewersets were literally the size of a football pitch with signs like youget in a theme park saying, 'You Are Here' because you just wouldn'tknow where your were on the set."
The sheer sizeof the production wasn't the only thing the actor had to cope with. "I found the makeup very tough. At times I was in a four-hour turnaround. I'dbe in there at 5 a.m. and I'd go home at midnight."
And then therewas the fight training. Like the first movie, Blade 2 featureslots of high-octane martial arts fighting. However, Goss wanted to make sureNomak's style was in keeping with the character.
"The main thing about Nomak is, he's not been around a longtime before heescaped. I basically said, 'his kind of fighting comes from watching andlearning,'" Goss told us. After working on proper martial arts technique,Goss changed gears. "I wanted to make it much more thug-like and make it a lot more street,and then incorporate the martial aspects. So you had to undo what you justlearned and make it a lot more vicious."
The showdownbetween Nomak and Blade will not be like the sophisticated swordplay seen at theend of the original. "Of all the other fights in the film, which are incredible, there's a fightwhere Nomak and Blade have a very specific type of encounter which is a lot morevicious and a lot more brutal and much more bloody and gruesome."
Although theactor enjoyed Prague, getting into the character of the tormented villain tookits toll. "For the first six weeks I didn't socialize. I stayed in the hotel. Keptmyself to myself," Goss said. " I just wanted to get into a fairly intense place and isolatemyself. It got quite lonely. I remember feeling one day that I thought thedirector was ignoring me. That's how insecure you get yourself. We laugh at itnow, but it's a place I had to go."
Goss credits DelToro with guiding him through his first big movie. "I have to say, the thing working with Guillermo, he sets you up for reallyloving a director and enjoying it.
"He's very capable of giving you actionand giving you a blockbuster movie," Goss said, "and he does iteffortlessly when there's like eight cameras shooting at once and there'll be fortyextras or, at one time, 500 extras. He just manipulates this action and he puts his cameras where he needs them. There's no guesswork withGuillermo. He knows exactly what he's doing."
Goss also foundDel Toro to be a generous director. "Hegives you compliments when you need them and he gives you direction when youneed that also," Goss told us. But that's not all. "He'llstill find time to come up and give you the biggest hugs you've ever had in yourlife. He's one of the biggest men I've ever met."
The actor alsohad plenty of praise for Blade 2's star. At first Goss had to getover the fact that it is WESLEY SNIPES. "People are kind of timid at firstbecause he's Wesley Snipes and he does have a presence and when he's in theBlade outfit, it can be intimidating," Goss reported. "We always said there's nothing like sweating onsomeone to break the ice. Most of my scenes were with him and mostof them are us knocking the hell out of each other it. It does break down the ice."
Goss is alsoappreciative of Snipes, the producer. "He knows what he's doing. He knows how to make the shot lookgood," Goss said. "It's like, you get on the set, the stunt coordinator and himwould show me something a couple of times and before you know it we'd be runningfilm trying to make it happen. It's really by the seat of your pants, it's 24/7but he knows what he's doing."
Of course, thisis the second Snipes movie that Goss has worked on. The pair both appearin David Goyer's Zigzag, although they didn't work together onthat one. Goss plays Cadillac Tom, a strip-club owner, "bent" jewelryfence and loan shark.
"It was a fun role to play because he'ssuch an asshole," Goss said. The film's lead characters, played by JohnLeguizamo (Spawn) and Sam Jones II (Smallville) tryto enlist his aid in solving a financial problem. "They're very polite and incredibly un-streetwise and I'm less than graciousabout helping them, to say the least."
Although thepart was small, the work on Zigzag provided valuable experiencefor the actor, who had never worked in an American movie before. "It was great because Ifinished Zigzag and within a week or so I was in Prague. It just gave me alittle bit of a speed ramp to get readily for Blade."
Working on amovie like Blade 2 has opened up opportunities to the actor.However, Goss is being careful about what his next roles will be.
"I always try to be aware as I can be about what Ido," the actor said. "When you see actors you admire, they have a signature. It thing that's thetrick is to try to have some kind of signature with what you do. So I have to be brave enough to hang in for the stuff Iwant to do."
And, like manyfans, Goss is waiting to see Blade 2. Although he's been offeredchances to see early cuts of the film, he has resisted, waiting instead to viewa finished version some time this week. "I want to enjoy it like a punter. It doesn't feel like a treat to see itunfinished," Goss said. "I'm going to sit down with my popcorn and enjoy it like everyone else should."
Blade 2opens March 22, 2002.
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