Well, he has the silliest-sounding name of any of the major actors to portray Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, that’s for sure. Or the silliest looking, at least. His name probably sounds better when spoken than it looks on paper or onscreen. Claes Bang. He’s Danish, so it probably sounds better, yeah. Not that it matter what his name is, what it sounds like or looks like when written. What matters is whether or not he can act and whether or not he has the right look to portray Dracula. We’ll start with the latter. I did an Internet search for the most Dracula-like photograph of Mr. Bang I could find, but didn’t find one. All the ones I’ve seen lack the sense of brooding, quiet menace I wanted. I’ll commit to this one with a definite “maybe.” I think the guy *could* make for a proper Dracula, appearance-wise.
As for whether or not he can act, it is doubtful that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, creators of the BBC series SHERLOCK, would have cast him if he couldn’t. I’ll have to take their opinion on faith, as I’ve never seen Mr. Bang (yeah, it looks silly) in anything. He’s in the new THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB movie, which tanked, and I’m glad it tanked, given how badly the studio screwed the whole thing up. If I didn’t get the sequel with Rooney Mara in the lead role, I’m not interested. Neither, it seems, is anyone else. Sorry, Claes. Better luck with Dracula.