SOME stars see ­premieres as a bit of a chore, but not Luke Evans, star of The Hobbit and Fast And Furious 6.

The Welshman can't wait to walk the red carpet, not least because he gets the family involved.

"When I was in theatre, they could come up and see the show as many times as they liked," says the 35-year-old who spent the first 10 years of his career on stage and in musical theatre.

"With film, maybe they'll come to set for the day, and so the only other time you get to share with them are the premieres."

In his own words, he's going to "stick 'em on a bus and make sure they don't get up to any mischief" at the premiere of his new movie, Dracula Untold.

This includes his grandmother ("She'll be driving," he jokes), who loves horror movies.

"The darker the better, so this film's probably the most exciting she's seen of mine," says Evans, grinning.

"I don't know why she likes them. I hate them."

He might not be a fan of the genre, but he couldn't resist an opportunity to put his stamp on one of the world's most famous monsters.

"I liked the fact I wasn't playing the Dracula everyone knows," explains the actor.

"That's why we called it Dracula Untold, because it really is the untold origin story of the most famous vampire.

"We're dealing with the historical figure, a man [Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler due to his favoured method of meting out torture] who walked this earth."

The movie's set in 1462. Transylvania's enjoyed a prolonged period of peace under the rule of the battle-weary Vlad and his wife Mirena (Sarah Gadon).

When the Sultan Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) demands 1000 of Vlad's boys, including his own son, to become child soldiers, he enters into a bargain with the Master Vampire (played by Charles Dance) - in return for being bestowed with the strength to crush his enemies, Vlad's inflicted with an insatiable thirst for human blood.

"You're watching a man make decisions for the love of his wife and child, and the responsibility he has to his people and his kingdom," says Evans.

"It's quite a tragic story, so to call it simply a vampire movie would be disrespectful in a way, because it's a much bigger spectrum of emotion."

The film's producer, Michael De Luca, has admitted casting was tricky, given that - much like Spider-Man or James Bond - everyone has their predetermined version of Dracula.

The team was after someone who was capable of embodying such an iconic character, but who didn't come with audience preconceptions. They found that in Evans.

"I've worked very hard and haven't really stopped filming for five years, I've just been going at it and slowly making my way up this ladder, and I'm enjoying every minute of it," says the actor, whose first films were Tamara Drewe, Robin Hood and Clash Of The Titans in 2010.

"It's been a really enjoyable process, and I guess because I've worked so hard and I'm 35 not 25, I feel ready for this moment."

Evans is a refreshing departure from the pretty boy vampires who've dominated in recent years.

He's handsome in a rugged way, or as the director Gary Shore puts it: "He just has this incredible face that can tell a story."

So the perfect look for an anti-hero, or villain for that matter.

"I loved my baddie in Fast 6," he says, referring to his appearance in the muscle car franchise headed up by Vin Diesel.

It was shortly after the film's release in 2012, he recalls, that he first spoke to Shore about Dracula Untold.

"It's probably the most physically demanding role I've done," he says.

"I mean, wearing that armour and doing the fight sequences was virtually impossible."

Not that the pressure was off when the armour was removed: "It was intense, because you have to train after work, but when you know your're going to be seen by a lot of people and up on a screen 50ft high, you feel the pressure to keep the body fat low.

"So you work damn hard, eat damn clean, don't drink alcohol, and sleep as much as you can."

It's not his idea of a good time, though, so he eases off in between projects.

Not to the point of chowing down pizza, mind - he's always on relatively good behaviour when it comes to looking after himself.

"It saves me having to really cane it when I do the next job," notes Evans, who recently wrapped on High-Rise, an "incredibly dark story" based on the J.G. Ballard novel and co-starring Sienna Miller and Tom Hiddleston.

"Films like this don't get made very often, so it'll be something that people will be quite shocked by, but it was quite exhilarating to shoot."

He's now planning on returning home to Wales for a few days, before he begins promoting the third and final instalment of The Hobbit series, in which he plays Bard the Bowman ("I can't tell you very much, otherwise I'll have The Hobbit police after me, but it's going to be a brilliant finale of a very long process").

As for what the New Year might hold, he hopes it will include production on The Crow, a reboot of the 1994 movie starring the late Brandon Lee.

"It was supposed to begin this year and didn't happen. To be honest with you, it's out of my hands. I'm happy to do the film and I'm ready to do it," he reveals.

Depending on how Dracula Untold does at the box office, he could soon return to his dark ways. "I didn't take on Dracula just to leave him there, so if there's a story to be told, I'd be very happy to play him again," says Evans, hinting that a return to his own origins is a possibility too.

"I'd love to do a musical film. I was a singer longer than I've been an actor, so it'd be great to combine the two."

It's just a case of finding the time these days, right?

"Today I asked someone what the date was and I'd lost 15 days somehow," Evans admits, smiling. "It's terrifying."

n Dracula Untold is released on Friday.