Maggie Gyllenhaal stars in the new Audible original adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The actress and director spoke to Good Housekeeping about the project and why she thinks people are still fascinated by the story.
The Audible reimagining also stars Jonathan Bailey, Ella Purnell, Aimee Lou Wood, and Louis Partridge.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is taking on a beloved classic in her latest project.
The actress and director is part of the cast of Audible’s original adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which dropped on the platform on October 1. She joined Jonathan Bailey, Ella Purnell, Louis Partridge, and more in this reimagining of the 1897 vampire tale.
Maggie told Good Housekeeping that she’s been thinking for quite some time about what draws people to vampires.
“I think it's so interesting that people continue to love the story,” she told us over Zoom. “There was a vampire film at [the 2026] Venice [Film Festival], where I was just on the jury, and I was thinking about vampires a lot. I was thinking about how fascinated people are by it.”
She even has a theory about why they endure.
“I think horror is interesting in the ways that it gets us in touch with the kind of most secret, terrifying aspects inside of us,” she added. “So I'm just thinking like, how do vampires touch that?”
Audible paired an ensemble cast with sound effects and binaural beats to give listeners a more immersive experience. They also had Maggie gender-bend Van Helsing, offering an imaginative take on what people think Dracula should be.
“Most people read Dracula in high school, like myself, and I didn’t remember it very well,” she said. “While my character is usually male, Van Helsing is out of the box and doesn’t quite fit in. Even the character’s logic and thinking in terms of how to solve problems is unusual and in a different language, which I think is like the experience of women functioning in the world.”
It’s her own fresh spin on a century-old tale.
“It was pretty cool to express Van Helsing in this manner and take on a position that feels more universal to everyone,” she concluded. “I thought it was exciting to showcase something new that people may not have expected.”
