“For me, as a woman of colour from a working class background, all of these ideas resonate with me,” she tells ELLE Australia.

The story of Dracula is already well known to the masses—but you haven’t known it like this. New vampire horror film, The Invitation has taken Dracula’s narrative and transformed it into a masterclass of drama, jump-scares and a confronting reflection of society itself.

Leading the film is Game Of Thrones star, Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Evie, an American woman who is introduced to her long lost relatives in the UK at a family wedding, only to find that their host, Walter (Thomas Doherty), is not everything he seems—he’s a vampire.

“I got shut in a coffin,” Emmanuel tells ELLE over a Zoom interview ahead of the films release. There’s a sense of revulsion in the way she says it as she recalls the moment her character was shut into the wooden box after realising what her relatives are.

“Whether you think that is real or not, getting shut in a box is horrible. Don’t do it! Don’t do it when you’re alive!” She pleads with a laugh.

Emmanuel’s character and her background is central to one of the key themes from the film. After losing her mother, Evie is excited to connect with previously unknown relatives—a rich British family of great privilege who invite her to the estate for a wedding.

When she gets there, it becomes clear how unfairly separated she is from this world of privileged, white upper-class aristocracy.
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“[I’ve had people] touch my hair like it’s a bomb about to go off.”

The Game of Thrones alum, who currently stars in The Invitation, spent her 20s fighting hair discrimination on set. Now 33, she’s made a big change — but there’s “joy, defiance, and empowerment” in her new, cropped look.

In my teens and 20s, I was already acting and started being in the public eye. Suddenly I had to present myself a certain way and had the expectations of the world on me. I felt a bit overwhelmed. My mum was always like, “It’s not about your appearance. You are beautiful. You
don’t need anything. You’re talented, you’re smart, kind, funny.” I could only be me at the end of the day.

But I was on a TV show in England called Hollyoaks, which was a teen show. A lot of students watched it and a lot of the women [in the cast] were very beautiful, glamorous. I definitely tried to become that.

There was a lot of pressure to conform, to have straight hair and do the aesthetic that was very Western/white. Every time I would straighten my hair, people would be like, “Oh, my God, I love your hair! You should do this all the time.” I’d always be like, “Hmm, or not.” I’ve always had quite a strong sense of myself, [but] you do just want to fit in at that age. You tend to be much more vulnerable to influence.

I remember when I first went to America and met other Black and mixed-race women [and they said], “Oh yeah, you need to get a weave. You need to have straight hair.” And I was like, “Really?” I just actively didn’t want to do that. That’s everybody’s choice for themselves. But for me it never felt right. I’ve had my hair damaged on set because someone wasn’t treating it right and literally had to cut off loads of it. That was just really heartbreaking.
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