After two film adaptations, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Swedish romantic horror novel, Let The Right One In, is now adapted into a TV series of the same name. Delving into vampires, young friendships, and the dark side of humanity, the show’s central father-daughter duo is played by Mexican actor Demián Bichir, and newcomer Madison Taylor Baez.
Other cast members have gone on to appear in mainstream shows like American Horror Story and The Leftovers, while an actor from the Terminator franchise has also made an appearance.
Demián Bichir – A Better Life (2011)
Stream On Peacock
Demián Bichir stars in Let The Right One In as Mark Kane, a concerned father who tries his best to procure human blood for his vampire daughter.
Even before the Showtime series, Bichir has had quite a history when it comes to caring fathers as is evident from his breakout role in A Better Life, which even earned him an Oscar nomination. The drama deals with an undocumented immigrant who works as a gardener and strives to secure the future of his teenage son. A mainstream name in Mexican telenovelas, Bichir started getting more Hollywood offers following A Better Life with high-profile credits such as The Nun and Godzilla Vs Kong.
Madison Taylor Baez – Selena: The Series (2020 – 2021)
Stream On Netflix
A relative newcomer to acting, Madison Taylor Baez has still made her mark at a young age given her singing experience as an America’s Got Talent contestant. In Let The Right One In, she features as Eleanor, a 12-year-old who struggles with her hidden life as a vampire.
Her major screen credit before this was her role as “Young Selena” in the biographical series Selena, a Netflix take on the life of the pop singer who became one of the most popular exponents of the Mexican-English Tejano music. Commenting on her role as the Latin-American legend, Baez told The Mujerista, “She’s such a great example not only to me but to all little girls that your dreams can come true.”
Anika Noni Rose – The Princess And The Frog (2009)
Stream On Disney+
The character Naomi in the show is quite interesting as even though she is a homicide detective, she once used to be a singer. The career change offers more depth behind the character and her choices.
While Let The Right One In might not allow her to feature much of her singing prowess, she has already proved her musical skills as Tiana in the animated romance musical The Princess And The Frog. With more than a decade since its release, the fairytale adaptation is notable for being one of the last 2D Disney animated movies. Looking back on the role’s legacy, Rose told Variety, “Being the first black Disney princess, that was such a first and it really has changed the way young brown children are looked at in school and fantasy…”
Grace Gummer – American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014 – 2015)
Stream On Hulu
Medical overtones are quite common in Let The Right One In, with Grace Gummer’s Claire being a doctor and sharing a conflicting relationship with her father, a disgraced figure in the pharmaceutical world.
This show is not the first unconventional horror title in Gummer’s filmography, though, as she has experience in Freak Show, one of the seasons in the anthology series American Horror Story. Here again, she seems to have a case of “daddy issues” as she plays a woman who is disfigured and tattooed with scales following mental torture by her father. As the season deals with a 1950s-era circus, she is accepted by the troupe of “freaks” as “The Astounding Lizard Woman.”
Kevin Carroll – The Leftovers (2014 – 2017)
Stream On HBO Max
A successful figure in the restaurant business, Kevin Carroll’s Zeke is protagonist Mark’s close friend. But with Mark struggling to find a cure for his daughter, their friendship seems to have grown strained over the years.
Carroll’s popular screen credits include playing one of the main characters of The Leftovers, which lasted for three seasons. Evoking themes of supernatural fantasy, magical realism, and human drama, the show is set in the aftermath of a global catastrophe that wiped out 2 percent of the world’s population. Carroll plays a fraudulent medium called John Murphy, debuting in the sophomore season. Often juggling between theater and TV, Murphy continues being one of Carroll’s most popular roles, even though, as a Vulture interview reveals, he knew nothing about the show when he auditioned for the part!
Nick Stahl – Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003)
Stream On HBO Max
Matthew, a “blood supplier” works out a network to supply the red fluids to other vampires, particularly the young vampire Peter. “We try to capture the spirit of that movie while at the same time creating our own universe,” says Matthew actor Nick Stahl in a TV Insider interview.
He is obviously no stranger to cinematic universes given how he has also been a part of an iconic franchise like the Terminator series. In the third chapter, a much-younger Stahl plays the future resistance leader John Connor joining forces with a reprogrammed T-101 robot as the latter arrives in the present timeline. The T-101’S aim is to save Connor while a more advanced shapeshifting T-X Terminator aims to finish them both off.
Jacob Buster – Colony (2016 – 2018)
Stream On The Roku Channel
Peter is another one of the young vampires in the show who is probably bitten by the same one that bit Eleanor. The character is played by Jacob Buster who earlier appeared in several episodes of the sci-fi drama Colony.
To put it in Buster’s own words (in an interview with Flickering Myth), “The show [The Colony] is about a nation divided and how the love of a family endures the battle of good vs. evil.” The Netflix original’s dystopian future finds the citizens of LA bowing down to an authoritarian military regime which in turn serves the newly-arrived alien creatures simply known as “Hosts.” The protagonists include a former U.S. ranger and a resistance fighter, with the couple trying their best to protect their youngest child, Will, Buster’s character.
Željko Ivanek – Damages (2007 – 2012)
Stream On Hulu
Arthur makes for quite an amusing character given his gray areas. Even though he means no harm, the drugs that the pharmaceutical expert helped in developing ultimately turned out to be addictive leading to several lawsuits against him. As family drama is common in Let The Right One In, the lawsuits strain the relationship with his daughter, Claire.
Talking about lawsuits, legal matters have always been an integral part of Željko Ivanek’s career given the acclaim for his role as the lawyer Ray Fiske in Damages. Considered one of the best legal dramas of the 2000s, the show focuses on the various cases that ruthless lawyer Patty Hewes and her protégé get involved in with every episode. Appearing as an antagonistic character, Ivanek’s civil attorney Ray Fiske often conspires against Patty Hewes.
Fernanda Andrade – Moon Knight (2022)
Stream On Disney+
Eleanor’s mother, played by Fernanda Andrade adds an alternate dimension to the 12-year-old’s troubled childhood. The last time the actress played a mother in a turbulent relationship was early this year with Marvel’s miniseries, Moon Knight.
With the titular hero going through a history of childhood trauma and split personalities, his early origins were always a subject of speculation until the penultimate episode gives more backstory. It turns out that young Marc’s elder sibling died in an accident, a death in the family that his mother Wendy forever blamed him for. Andrade appears in only one episode but delivers enough emotional dialogue to strike as a memorable side character.
Josh Wingate – Priest (2011)
Stream On Redbox
In the world of Let The Right One In, vampire characteristics can also be developed through specific drugs in a network controlled by gangsters like Josh Wingate’s Roland.
It just so happens that Wingate played a vampire back in 2011 with a brief role as a “Familiar” (servant to a vampire) in Priest. The Paul Bettany-starring movie is a horror adventure that deals with a hyperviolent clash between religious fighters called Priests and vampires in a post-apocalyptic future. It seems that Wingate has quite the knack for playing vampire-associated characters.
