The Insider.com

Benjamin Walker undertook a daunting role when he decided to play Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. However, playing the historic president in a film was only part of the intimidating task because, as is apparent in the title, Lincoln steps out of his usual self to become a vampire hunter in the film.

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"I really just approached it as an actor," Walker said of his approach to his role in the film. "I did my research. I wrote in my journal. There was no thought in my mind that this was anything other than...making a live-action Lincoln. He just happens to have an ax."

Although turning a well-respected president into a vampire-hunting action star could be seen as pushing the envelope a little too far, Walker presented in a positive light. "It's a new perspective on a hero that we already know to be a hero. Now, we get to see him as an action hero," he said.

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As he puts it, the vampire theme isn't what the film is really all about. "It's just happenstance that there are vampires," the 29-year-old actor assured. "It's really a movie about Abraham Lincoln—the one that we know and love."

Walker said that, despite the evident vampire fabrication, the crew did an excellent job in keeping the film historically accurate through research. In the video clip above, he describes an example of the lengths that they went to in order to portray Lincoln properly.

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Check out a behind-the-scenes look as well as the trailer above of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which is in theaters June 22.