Rachelle Lefèvre plays Victoria, one of a gang of vampires that includes James (Cam Gigandet), left, and Laurent (Edi Gathegi). (Seville Pictures)

Rachelle Lefèvre, a Montreal-born actress who has a key role in the new movie Twilight, has a thing for vampires.

She dates that fascination for the undead to her 14th year, when she read Bram Stoker's Dracula while on a trip to Greece.

"When I finished it, I remember turning the page, flipping over the book and being like, 'No, it can't be over. I can't be done with that world. I have to go back.' And I turned the book right around, opened it up and started reading again," Lefèvre said in an interview with CBC's Q cultural affairs show.

The young actress plays Victoria, a vampire well known to readers of the Twilight series of young adult books by Stephanie Meyer.

Rachelle Lefèvre says she had to figure out how to play a villain as the vampire Victoria. (Seville Pictures)

The film version, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, is hotly anticipated — an official trailer for the film drew 3.5 million hits in its first week on the internet.

That has brought unprecedented attention for the 29-year-old actress, who studied at McGill University before being lured away by acting. She previously appeared in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and The River King before landing roles as Dana Strickland on Boston Legal and Marina in Swing Town.

But Twilight, which features a love story between teenaged Bella and a vampire, has meant a new level of attention.

"I've never been a part of anything this big before," Lefèvre said. "I've been really lucky and gotten to be on some great network TV shows and done some great indie film, but in terms of a studio film that's this highly anticipated with a built-in fan base, every experience that goes with it is brand new."

Loved playing role

Lefèvre, who lives in Los Angeles, loved playing Victoria.

"There's a lot of roles for women that involve being someone's girlfriend or being in a male-centred story line and I loved the idea of playing a woman who didn't have to answer to any of that, even if I had to be a vampire to do it," she said.

Victoria is a renegade vampire who attempts to kill Bella, the human heroine of Twilight. The role required Lefèvre to figure out how to play the villain.

"I feel like there's different kinds of evil and there's different kinds of villains, and as much as I would like to be dark and playing with knives … it's not me and it's not my look," she said.

"I guess the thing [Catherine Hardwicke] liked that I sort of ended up nurturing is … the idea that the best villains are the most playful .… I decided that would be Victoria — she would be someone who took immense pleasure in slow torture and stalking, rather than be overtly aggressive."

After getting the audition, Lefèvre rushed out to read the books, and became a fan. Vampires have changed since Dracula, she said, but continue to be fascinating.

"The thing I love about vampires that I find so fascinating is that, unlike other sci-fi creations, they aren't monsters from the get-go, they're human beings first … and so what kind of human you are would dictate what kind of vampire you would be."

What would you give up?

Vampires dangle the notion of immortality before the reader, or the movie-goer, then pose the question of what you would have to give up to be immortal, Lefèvre said.

"This is the major question that Edward and Bella face with her being human and him being a vampire ... that as a human she'll grow old and die. She only gets him for a short period of time and he only gets her for a short period of time,'' she said.

"Does she become a vampire to be with him? But then she has to trade everything that she loves — the rest of her family and her life.

"What I love about this book is that it's not just a vampire story, it's a vampire human love story. It raises the question of what is the thing you're most passionate about, and what would you do and what would you give up to get it. and I fully think that's something everyone can relate to."

Twilight will be released Nov. 21.