Nosferatu: Robert Eggers talks about Bill Skarsgård’s complete transformation and a new image is released

Last Updated on December 15, 2023

Robert Eggers takes his tendency to stay faithful to a laboriously era-accurate vision to the story of Count Orlok in a remake of Nosferatu. The director of such films as The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman speaks with Total Film Magazine about Bill Skarsgård’s unrecognizable look for his adaptation. According to ComingSoon, Eggers says Skarsgård’s performance will be unlike anything he’s ever done before. Seeing as how he’s already shown his creepy demeanor in the It films and Barbarian, it will be interesting to see how different his interpretation will be to Max Schreck from the original 100-year-old film.

Eggers explained, “There are things that are Schreck-like but I felt we had to do something else. Basically I was like, ‘What would a dead Transylvanian nobleman actually look like for real?’ Bill lost a tremendous amount of weight.” He added, “He’s so transformed in every aspect that I don’t know if people will give him the credit. You can see Bill [as Pennywise] in the It make-up; you can’t detect any Bill here. He worked with an opera coach to lower his voice an octave. I think people are going to think we treated it digitally, but that’s his performance.”

In addition, Total Film has released a new look at Nicholas Hoult in the film.

An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the original Nosferatu has the following synopsis: “In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok’s servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home.”

Eggers’ Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.