‘I went into the grocery store and all the lights turned off, and all I could hear was this noise in the rafters,” recalls Jill Wagner, who plays Krista Starr on “Blade: The Series,” which airs on Spike TV with a two-hour premiere on Wednesday. “I looked up and I saw all of these vampires on the rafters, and they swung down — they swooped at me — but I just stood there because I wasn’t afraid of them.”
Wagner is not reliving a bloodcurdling scene from “Blade,” which, like the comic book and movie trilogy of the same name, follows a half-breed vampire as he wages war against his bloodsucking brethren. She’s describing a recurring dream of hers. The actress — whom many viewers will recognize as “the Mercury girl” from a series of car commercials — has had a lifelong fascination with vampires.
It’s an affinity that she shares with her co-star Kirk “Sticky” Jones, who takes over the vampire-slayer role played by Wesley Snipes on the big screen. The new dhampir, who splits his time equally between acting (“Over There,” “The Shield”) and rapping (as a solo artist and a member of the group Onyx), actually goes so far as to seek out the undead while he’s traveling.
“I don’t want people to think I’m weird or nothing, but I totally believe in vampires,” he admits. “When I go to New York, I stay at this hotel called the Royalton. I call it the vampire hotel. The hallways are all dark and gloomy. It’s a fly hotel, very expensive — but it’s a vampire hotel.”
Naturally, both actors are excited to be a part of this project. Jones, who has long been a fan of the franchise, sees the series as an opportunity to expand its scope.
“We get a chance to go places the movies never went, because we’ve got more time and more hours to tell the stories,” he says. How many hours might depend on how many “Blade” fans are willing to accept someone new in the title role. With Snipes, the movie trilogy grossed more than $200 million combined at the box office.
While he is fully aware that many people may view Snipes’ as the definitive take on the title character, Jones sees that as a blessing, not a curse.
“I think it makes it easier that people know the character,” he says confidently. “That gives me a fresh opportunity to bring something different to it.”
Wagner, who’s also recognizable from her stint on the celebrity prank show “Punk’d,” plays a character who’s brand new to the “Blade” universe. It’s only appropriate, considering that acting is fairly new to Wagner; Krista represents her first starring role. As such, the show has been very much a learning experience for her.
“When we shot the pilot,” she remembers, “we were with Peter O’Fallon, the director, (whom) I love — he’s phenomenal. Since I had never done anything (like this) before, I had never been on a series or anything, I didn’t know that the directors changed (from episode to episode). I had no idea so, you know, I’m thinking Peter’s going to be back. … Well, then I get here, and there’s a new director, and there’s a new director every time, so I’m like, ‘Oh, God, I’m going to have to get used to different people.’ “
Of course, on a series such as “Blade,” those efforts could prove futile. By the time she comes to recognize the new faces, they could be gone — literally.
“There was this one scene where I actually get to chop someone’s head off,” Wagner says with an almost startling enthusiasm. “And so we were working with the actual beam that I do that with — the wood post — and there’s a lot of cool ways where you can chop someone’s head off.”
