Bill Skarsgård, Nosferatu and the "allure of destruction": 'Ultimately it annihilates you'

This time around, Bill Skarsgård takes on the central role, playing a version of Count Orlok who has his roots in more traditional folkloric depictions of vampires than previous screen versions of the character. But although the look of the Count has changed, he still stands for pretty much the same thing as always: "the allure of destruction," as Skarsgård puts it.

"She [Ellen Hutter, played by Lily-Rose Depp] is battling, the benevolent husband, the loving, caring husband, the good husband, with this other thing that is just destruction and the allure of destruction," he explained during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

"And why you would seek out… why you're drawn towards something that is so destructive to you and ultimately annihilates you. And I think that Orlok can represent so many different things in that regard. I mean, it could be, you know, the people that end up in abusive relationships or finding something you know, why are you stuck in it?

"But it could also be substance abuse. It could be so many different things where we're drawn towards something that we know is destructive to us, but we cannot help being drawn to it."

Of course, any depiction of the physical manifestation of destruction needs to be suitably dark and scary for it to have much of an impact, and for Skarsgård, one of the most important aspects of this was landing on the right voice for the character.

He worked with an opera singer and crafted his own 30-minute routine to ensure that it didn't appear too forced or put on, and the end result is a growling, heavily accented voice that certainly sends a chill or two down the spine – at least according to his cast mates.

“The first thing that gave me a sense of what Bill was doing with the character was Rob[ert Eggers] had a recording of the voice he had been working on and the accent whilst we were rehearsing," explained Nicholas Hoult, who plays Thomas Hutter in the film.

"And instantly, from that moment, I was like, 'Oh, this is going to be completely transformative in terms of what Bill was doing.' But also, like that voice just kind of echoed right through the room and threw you in such a sinister, scary way.

"And I was like, 'Oh, this is terrifying.' But then seeing the physicality and the costume and the makeup and all the depth that Bill brought to that character in his research and in creating it, that was really special, because it makes it feel so real and lived in.

"And that then is scarier to me, because it feels like something that did and could exist.”

That level of research Skarsgård put in is pretty much emblematic of the approach taken by Eggers and his collaborators all round. As has been the case for each of his three previous features, the writer/director went to painstaking lengths to ensure historical accuracy on just about every level – from sets to costumes to dialogue – and this attention to detail is something that instantly came through to Hoult when he got involved.

"It comes across, right from reading one of his scripts," he explained. "You feel it because, I mean, the language is so specific, the descriptive elements of the script really make you understand the world you're entering.

"And then, it's every level. Look at the costumes, the makeup, the set designs, how you know, before we even start shooting, he's got a storyboard of the shots through the whole movie. So him and Jarin [Blaschke], his DP, have designed exactly how each edit and cut and each scene is going to be shot.

"So you really have a great understanding of what it is that... the story, how he's trying to tell it, and what he's creating, and then the passion for that. All of those elements are just useful things as an actor to kind of root you in it and understand what it is that you're entering into."

Given all that, it's perhaps no surprise to learn that Eggers has been preparing to make this film – at least on some level – for a very long time. What's a little more surprising is just how long.

Although the project was announced in 2015 – shortly after the release of his debut film The Witch – Eggers had in fact put on a stage version of the story all the way back in high school, even if it turns out the new film only has a few things in common with his original vision.

"The film's pretty dissimilar from the play that I did," he explained. "The play that I did was very much a silent film on stage, and more expressionist than the [FW] Murnau film. It was kind of styled after [The Cabinet of Dr] Caligari as far as, like, expressionist, weird sets made of cardboard. It was all very humble."

But he added: "The one thing that kind of remained from the production was that the ending is more of a duet, which was something that I thought I had gotten wrong as a kid, but it was the only way that I could find truth in the blocking of it and with the actors.

"I still may not have been the right choice, but it was the only way I could figure out how to do it!"

Nosferatu is released in UK cinemas on New Year's Day 2025.

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