Film Stats: Agnes Playing: Vivian Gandillon Year: 2007 Production Status: Released in theaters Directed By: Katja von Garnier Screenwriters: Ehren Kruger (screenplay) & Annette Curtis Klause (novel) Genre: Drama / Fantasy / Horror / Romance MPAA Rating: PG-13 Studio: MGM Worldwide Box Office: $4,743,908 Credited Cast: ...Hugh Dancy ...Olivie Martinez Filming Locations: Bucharest, Romania

{+} Official Site {+} IMDB.Com {+} Photo Gallery {+} Video Clips {+} Buy DVD R1 {+} Buy DVD R2

Blood & Chocolate is based on Annette Curtis Klause's novel about a teenage werewolf who has spent her life trying to hide the fact that she is part wolf. She must choose between her love for a human and her family after her relationship with a visiting American threatens to expose her secret. » Read Full Sypnosis

Agnes is playing Vivian Gandillon a beautiful young woman who is also a werewolf. She spends her days working at a chocolate shop and nights trawling the city's underground clubs, fending off the reckless antics of her cousin Rafe and his gang of delinquents he calls "The Five". Vivian is among the last of her kind, leading a tenuous existence under the protection and control of Gabriel. To keep their kind from being hunted to extinction Gabriel holds to strict laws and one of them being he must take a new bride every seven years and Vivian is promised to him next only she is torn for her love for Aiden, a human. Though Vivian has sworn never to kill, she is as much animal as she is human, and her love for Aiden threatens to cast him to the very wolves who saved her life...and who are waiting for their chance to hunt him as prey.

Based on the book by Annette Curtis Klause. Ehren Kruger of The Skeleton Key, Scream 3, The Brothers Grimm and The Ring series has adapted the story. Agnes plays Vivien, the lead female.

• (On What Attracted Agnes to Vivian) "First of all her strength. I think she's a really emotionally strong character, and just her story. Just her having to deal with different lives pretty much. She does have different lives. Where she's a wolf on one side and being a human on the other, still loving the wolf side of her and also wanting to be a human. Wanting to feel love and be free and not be involved with this pack but also loving it. I think this whole struggle that she goes through is what attracted me most to her." • "Just the idea of playing a werewolf because I just think it's such a cool story and they're very cool legends. I've always been attracted to that and the whole vampire thing too. It's nice to pretend. Like when I was little, I used to want to be a witch. I actually went to what I thought was a witchcraft store and got a book and came home and realized it was a witch cookbook but there were a couple of spells in it like to make it rain and I remember me and my cousin went outside. They had told you to get a bowl of rice with water and throw it in the air and it's supposed to rain and it didn't work so I got really mad and stopped wanting to be a witch. But I loved the movie The Craft with the four girls where they play witches. To have a power, to have an ability like that would be so cool." • "I think it's a fairly decent mix of the two [action & romance], because it's not a love story in a gushy way, I think it's more of a darker love story. When I saw it, you don't think of it and go "Awwww, they're in love…" It's more of they're in love but they also have to deal with Gabriel and her being a werewolf, and maybe even her turning against him, so it's definitely not a gushy love story. There is a lot of depth behind it and a lot of action, so I think it's a really good mix of both." • (Agnes Was Given A Wolf As A 'Wrap Gift') "What happened was for my wrap gift one of the producers, Hawk (Koch), gave me a present. He adopted a wolf for me. But there was no follow up on that so I hope my wolf is okay. I got some kind of gift certificate but I don't think that there was anything on it to kind of like communicate with them." • "My character is Vivian, she's a werewolf and Olivier Martinez is the leader of the pack who plays Gabriel. Hugh Dancy is not a werewolf, he's just a regular human, and he comes into her life and they fall in love with each other. I think it's just the struggle of having to deal with the werewolf side of her and also dealing with human side of her and how she wants to be a part of both, but how do you do that and how do you work it out with someone who's not a werewolf. Gabriel, he wants to destroy all humans. He thinks they're disgusting and doesn't want anything to do with them. I'm also next in line as far as the legend of the werewolves go, I'm next in line to be Gabriel's mate. I don't want to be a part of that, so it's a bunch of different things going on. At the end of the day, it's kind of a dark love story and then also throw in action and turning into a wolf and everything else." • "The cool thing about this is that we don't actually turn into like half-werewolf-half-human, we turn into full-on wolves, so they actually brought real live wolves that were with us pretty much the entire time we were shooting, and shot them separately and sometimes together. As far as us turning into them, we had harnesses, and we did a lot of stuntwork for it, but it was mostly CGI. We wore contacts, which were really cool, to kind of help the CGI turn us into the wolves, but other than that, we didn't have to put on fake hair or fangs or anything like that." • (On The Title - Blood & Chocolate) "It kind of represents both feelings or personalities of my character, which is blood being the werewolf side and then chocolate being the female side and how they go together and how they don't and her dealing with it. That's how I looked at the title." • (On The PG-13 Rating) "It doesn't show a lot of gore and blood and all that stuff, but there's definitely a lot of action and fighting sequences and stuff like that. But I don't think the base of the movie is based on the gore of it, but it is an action-thriller movie, so it does have that sense to it as well." • "It's based on a book, but I think it's a little different from the book in many ways. I actually myself haven't read the book, just because I knew it was going to be different, and I went as far as reading the script and doing research on wolves and stuff, but I never actually read the book myself." • "I first read the script and just was really intrigued as far as the whole werewolf story. I've loved werewolves and vampires ever since I was little, so that was definitely the first thing that drew me to it. I don't know, just the character and how strong she is, and what a cool, kick-ass role it was, but then also, everybody getting involved. The director Katja von Garnier and working with people from Lakeshore [the production team], Olivier Martinez, Hugh Dancy, amazing actors. So everything just kind of one-by-one made me want to do it more and more." • "We shot it in Bucharest, Romania, which was an awesome setting just because it's such a perfect… as far as the atmosphere goes… how like the city is so dark and kind of dirty, but at the same time, so beautiful and the buildings are so original and old. It was such a cool atmosphere to work in, but yeah, that's where we shot it. It was a pretty cool to work in." • (On Working With Wolves) "It was great. It was very, you know, when you hear you’re going to be working with wolves, it’s kind of weird, but it was fun. They were really cool. The trainer, the guy that owns them, he’s a Hungarian guy, Zoltan, and he was really, really cool and he had such a special relationship with them. He would stand around them like as a group and he started howling and then they would. Very weird. Because they’re like really wild animals. So it was cool." • "Vivian Gandillon is a headstrong young woman who "comes from a long line of leaders,” says Bruckner. "Her pack has plans for Vivian, but her blood has always told her not to go their way. She lives among them for protection and because they took her in after her family was slaughtered, but she is not exactly one of them.” "Vivian resents and resists the animal part of herself,” adds von Director Garnier. "She dislikes the current regime of the loup garoux that’s based on hatred and revenge." • (On Filming In Bucharest) "I was in Bucharest when I was 11 for my first movie ever called "The Shrunken City” and so, yes, it was kind of cool to go back. I didn’t really remember anything from the first time I went, but I saw some people that I worked with on the first movie that I knew. It was 10 years later so it was pretty interesting to see them again... is. It’s very gritty. It’s very grey and black, very dirty, and there are stray dogs everywhere. And the people are also not smiling all the time. But the architecture is especially beautiful and I love the old, original buildings and stuff like that." • (On Working With So Many Men) "It was actually fine because I kind of grew up that way too. I always had more guy friends than girlfriends so it was actually kind of cool. They were all very nice and very fun to be around." • (On Co-Star Hugh Dancy) "I’d never met him before. He was great. You know, we just got along instantly and always made jokes and made fun of each other and had a good time. I love to be like that on set, you know, it’s not all just work. I like to have fun too on set." • (On Co-Star Oliver Martinez) "He was great. He was very, very different than what you picture him to be. You know, when you hear of Oliver Martinez, you think of "Unfaithful.” You think of this sexy guy and he is, but it’s just very different." • (On Werewolves & Vampires) "I guess it’s because it’s so – like it can never happen. It’s such an imagination almost that it’s kind of nice to pretend. Like when I was little, I used to want to be a witch. I actually went to what I thought was a witchcraft store and got a book and came home and realized it was a witch cookbook but there were a couple spells in it to make it rain and stuff like that and I remember me and my cousin went outside. They had told you to get a bowl of rice with water and throw it in the air and it’s supposed to rain and it didn’t work so it got really bad and [I] stopped wanting to be a witch. No, I love those things." • "I’ve never played with Barbies growing up and what’s that movie…it’s called the Crafts with the four girls where they play witches. I love that movie. To have a power, to have an ability like that would be so cool." • "I think it was more the physical stuff. For the transformation, they had to make a cast of my body of the front from my knees to my neck and they put the cast onto one of those caterpillar-like machines and it was on a stick. I looked like a human shish kabob for a day and it turns like all the way around like 360 and I had to be there with my arms out like this (demonstrates) which was so difficult because I was like on the cast with my dress over it so I couldn’t fall out and it was so painful. It was really painful and just exhausting. And it’s so hard to actually do acting stuff while you’re doing things like that and flying through the air and all that kind of stuff." • (On The Action) "It was so much fun. I liked it. Yeah. And there are a few other things I’ve done where it’s involved running and stuff like that. It’s fun. It’s kind of like being a kid again, you know, where you’re playing a game almost. It’s very fun." • "There was quite a few scenes where I had to kick a little butt, which was a lot of fun. Hard work, but at the same time, it was so much fun, you kind of put it past you, but it was definitely a cool experience to do that. When I saw myself on screen doing it, I was like "Whoa, I kind of look cool!" Yeah, there's definitely scenes like that, and playing with guns and all that kind of stuff I thought was so interesting and so much fun to play. • (On Katya) "It was definitely easier to talk about feelings of love because the love story in it is so important. To talk to a girl about that kind of stuff is a lot easier than to talk to a guy ‘cause I think girls look at love in a whole other way. But, for the most part, she got the love and the passion, but she also had the dark side covered too." • (On Katya) "She's such an amazing person. Being a director, just to begin with, is just, I think, one of the hardest jobs just because you have to work in every way. You have to work with actors, you have to be involved with the producers and the writing and the action. Every department comes to you, you have to deal with everything. I think she handled it so well, and she made very good choices and decisions, and she was really a pleasant person to work with as far as a director to an actor. She helped me through a lot of things, and she was a pleasure to work with. She really was very, very smart, and she knows how to handle her stuff, definitely." • (On A Horror Set) "It’s just very fun to work on them. The whole environment is so different. When you do a comedy, which I’ve never done . . . I’ve only heard stories . . . And, that’s something I hope to do next ‘cause it just sounds like so much fun. All you do, all day, is make jokes and make people laugh. When you’re on a horror set, people are walking around with sliced throats and blood all over them, and it’s just fun. It’s like you’re 10 years old, making a movie. It’s fun, and I enjoy it a lot."

• "The filmmakers cast up-and-coming American actress Agnes Bruckner as Vivian, who sought to bring the "softer side” to the legend of the werewolf. "I think it is beautiful to express that side of this legend,” she says. "Werewolves are always thought of as these scary creatures but I think that this movie really shows that there is a whole other side of them. Wolves themselves are not evil – neither are loup garoux." - Katya (Director) • "The young actress impressed von Garnier with her sensitivity wrapped in toughness. "She has wisdom far beyond her years,” says the director, "and understood the role perfectly. During the shoot, it was impressive to watch how she would always save something for her close up. Even after 10 hours into the day, she still had something in store for us when it came to her close up. She is very gifted.” Producer Hawk Koch adds, "Agnes has such amazing talent that all of us who are fortunate enough to work with her early in her career will be able to watch her career grow. She is a consummate actress even at 20 years old." - Katya (Director) • "Vivian’s unexpected encounter with the young American artist Aiden throws a wrench in Gabriel’s plans for her. Fascinated with the legends of loup garoux, Aiden has come to Bucharest to research the legends at their nexus. "Vivian is surprised by Aiden’s passion for wolves and loup garoux,” says von Garnier. "Vivian is going through a point where she wants to be human but also likes the wolf side of her, but not the violence associated with it,” adds Bruckner. "When she meets Aiden, she sees herself in him a little bit – the side that she really loves. It draws her to him." - Katya (Director)