Sarah Gadon for ASOS Magazine

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She’s starred alongside Robert Pattinson [twice] and owned every red carpet she’s walked – Now a Dracula reimagining is set to see actress Sarah Gadon graduate to full-on stardom… 

Sitting outside the restaurant of The Bowery Hotel in New York, I have one eye on the menu and one eye on the front door where The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson is waiting for a taxi. Apparently Rihanna stayed here last night and Jared Leto’s knocking around, being a babe, somewhere inside too.

It’s fitting, then, that this is the place Sarah Gadon has chosen to meet, seeing as it won’t be long before she too will be one of those celebrities who you immediately text your friends to say you’ve spotted.

It’s been a steady rise for Sarah, 27, choosing not the most mainstream of films to make her debut, but instead ones that made critics – and designers – notice her. Her first film, one she made while still a student [well, technically, she’s still a student, but more on that later…], was director [and fellow Canadian] David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, with Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley.

 Cronenberg immediately cast her again, to play Robert Pattinson’s wife in drama Cosmopolis, and following that in the upcoming Maps To The Stars, with R-Patz again. She starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy and Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as well as Tom Felton in costume drama Belle. This month, she’s moving away from indies with Dracula Untold, an epic vampire love story.

 ‘My brother kept saying to me, “Why can’t you be in a cool movie?”’ she grins, talking of her current choice of film, when she joins me at our table for a cup of tea. ‘But film can be so many different things. At first, I didn’t think Dracula Untold was going to be a love story, but it’s the ultimate one – at its core is the idea of what you sacrifice for the ones you love. 

‘It’s a date film. Your boyfriend watches the explosions and then there’s this intense connection between Vlad [Luke Evans] and my character, and I’m like, “This is for my ladies!” And I did Belle for all the women in my life, too, because after Cosmopolis, my mum said to me, “Could you just make a film that we can really enjoy?!’”

Cosmopolis, although not to Mama Gadon’s tastes, was something of a game changer for Sarah, as it was for her co-star Robert Pattinson, taking him from Twilight tween pin-up boy to serious actor. ‘I love what Rob did in Cosmopolis,’ she says. ‘On the outside, he’s all, “I don’t know what I’m doing”, but he’s very smart. He’s changed his entire career.’

Are the two of them pals now? ‘I get along really well with all my leading men,’ she laughs. ‘Jake Gyllenhaal is so talented – he’s always pushing you to make it better, and I love that. I felt that way working with Gugu Mbatha-Raw on Belle, as well. Every project I work on, I walk away with a lifelong friend, and that’s amazing because the industry can be so fickle.’

It’s an interesting time for Sarah, as she finds herself at the exact point where everything’s starting to change. Casting directors are calling her on a regular basis and couture designers are taking her under their wing. Just after our shoot, she’s off to the Venice Film Festival, hitting the red carpet in floor-length Armani Privé, which she also wore to this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Maps To The Stars.

‘I know things have changed, but I don’t really feel like they have,’ she says. ‘Maybe I can throw my hat into the ring with bigger profile projects, but you do always feel like you’re struggling. People have this idea that an actor is very glamourous – red carpets, gift bags and cameras – and there is some of that, but it’s humbling because every time you finish a project, you put yourself out there again into a vulnerable place. I’m not struggling to pay my rent now, which is nice, but I might be next year. You never know!’

What Sarah’s definitely not struggling with, is her style. Every film premiere – from Cannes to Venice via London and New York – she’s smashed it, combining grown-up glamour and maje beauty.

‘It’s a whole other world, dressing up for the red carpet,’ she laughs, today wearing a much more laid-back white vest and cute navy skirt. ‘I have a hard time, creating this “super” person to walk out on the red carpet, but I know it’s important. Fashion is an art, and when you meet designers you realise it’s not just about a dress, it’s about the person and their ideas.’

 ‘I met Roksanda Ilincic at a dinner and I totally fell in love with her, and Christian Louboutin is an amazing, incredible, hilarious guy. I really like the tomboy, flowery romance of Erdem and I love Fendi, and especially Armani. I landed in Cannes and didn’t have a dress because I had been shooting solidly for six weeks, so I was delirious. I went straight into the Armani store and they helped me pick a great dress to wear. After that I thought, it’s time to work with a stylist!’

While spotting Karl Lagerfeld at parties [a Cannes highlight], having Armani lend you incredible dresses and hanging out with Rob on the red carpet might be all well and good, Sarah’s favourite moment of the whole experience happened in London this year. ‘Prince threw us an afterparty for Belle,’ she says, with a huge grin. ‘It was in a private room at The Hippodrome [Casino] and he sang for us for two-and-a-half hours – I danced my heart out! He was dedicating songs to us. It was the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me!’

When she’s not partying with Prince, Sarah is still a student of Film Theory at the University of Toronto. Before that, she went to a performing arts high school back in Canada, so it’s safe to say she knows her way around acting. ‘Initially, university wasn’t important to me,’ she says. ‘I was finishing school and said to my parents, “I want to be an actor and maybe I’ll move to L.A.”, and they were like, “No. Freaking. Way.” My mum is a teacher and my dad is a psychologist, and they said, “You can study anything you want and do anything you want, but you have to do a foundation year, and you can act full time after that.” 

‘I went away to university and it was the best thing I ever could have done. I have three credits of my degree left, but I fully intend to finish it off.’

Toronto is still home for Sarah. ‘Part of the reason I still live there is that I have a core group of friends that I grew up with,’ she says. ‘It’s just home – my boyfriend [a film editor] and I travel so much that I couldn’t imagine having to travel to visit my family and friends too.’ It’s time for Sarah to go. We’ve finished our tea and her boyfriend’s arrived to pick her up – it’s their last night in New York before she heads off to Toronto, Venice and then a massive tour of Europe for Dracula Untold. After that? She pauses, then grins. ‘I’m just figuring out what I want.’ Whatever that is, she won’t be taking the conventional route to getting it.

 DRACULA UNTOLD IS OUT ON 3 OCTOBER

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