Nosferatu: Robert Eggers praises Bill Skarsgård and says he looks unrecognizable as the vampire

Nosferatu: Robert Eggers praises Bill Skarsgård and says he looks unrecognizable as the vampire – The director recognizes the actor’s commitment to bringing this important character to life.

By Megan Sauer

Shortly after the success of The Witch, Robert Eggers made it clear that he intended to remake Nosferatu because that classic film marked his childhood and his passion for horror films. Of course, at that time it was not possible to move forward with that dream, but thanks to his reputation in Hollywood he will now have the opportunity to show that he can offer something special to this legacy. To do this, the director needed to have a great actor to give life to the famous vampire, and Bill Skarsgård became a great ally who gave himself completely to the role.

Vampires have always been very attractive and popular figures in art, and the long list of novels, series and films prove that they still have a lot of power over the public. Some creators like to romanticize their origin and abilities as undead, while others prefer to take them as monsters that represent a very clear social fear. Whatever they are, vampires continue to present themselves in various ways, although they do not always do so successfully.

Dracula is the novel that established almost all of the canon used in the vampire theme, but bringing it to the big screen was not easy at all. In order not to pay the corresponding copyright, a production company worked on a story with the same premise but some different details under the direction of FW Murnau. This led to a major legal problem that almost caused the film to disappear, but also gave it a curious status among film buffs as a cult film.

Robert Eggers has been working on his version of ‘Nosferatu’ for years

For many creators, Nosferatu represents their first door into horror, but also their first approach to cinema, so it is a title that inspired and continues to inspire several directors. Eggers is one of them, and since he was a child he became obsessed with the story, the character and the idea of working on his own version, something he achieved during his time at school by producing a stage adaptation that even then showed his skills as artist and that style that would mark his career, as well as the public’s expectations and criticism of his works.

Eggers had every intention of working on his remake of Nosferatu after the success of The Witch, but knew that it was not possible because he still did not have the confidence of the production companies to approve his budget, and because he still had to perfect his skills. he.  That is why the creator decided to focus on other projects such as El Faro or El Hombre del Norte, which served to establish him within the genre and as one of the most promising artists of recent years.

Robert Eggers recognizes Bill Skarsgård’s commitment

After being forced to shut down production and losing his original cast, Eggers was sure it wasn’t in his destiny to remake Nosferatu. Luckily, the creator recovered from this disappointment and was able to raise the project again with Bill Skarsgård as the vampire, a key role for the story and a job that not everyone could take. In an interview with Total Film (Games Radar), the director praised the work of his lead actor:

He is so transformed in every way that I don’t know if people will give him the credit he deserves.  You can see Bill [as Pennywise] in It makeup;  you can’t detect anything from Bill here.  He worked with an opera teacher to lower his voice an octave.  I think people are going to think we digitally altered it, but that’s his performance.

The director also explained that he wanted to show the famous vampire in a slightly different way, which led the actor to lose a lot of weight to do justice to his vision.  Skarsgård is as committed to the story as Eggers, who wants to respect many elements of the original work, but also hopes to deliver something new and powerful that can stand on its own.  This remake will hit commercial theaters on December 25 of next year, an interesting date for a proposal of this genre and with these expectations.