Moviegoers won't soon forget the strangely alluring evil of Bill Skarsgård's Count Orlok. Nor will the actor forget the experience of making Nosferatu. Here's how playing the legendary vampire has changed Skarsgård's life and career forever.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Moviegoers won't soon forget the strangely alluring evil of Bill Skarsgård's Count Orlok,
00:06nor will the actor forget the experience of making Nosferatu. Here's how playing the legendary
00:10vampire has changed Skarsgård's life and career forever.
00:14The majority of critics have good things to say about Nosferatu, especially about Bill
00:18Skarsgård's turn as Orlok. Good reviews help, but according to Skarsgård, stepping into
00:22the skin of such an evil character was a nightmare. Speaking with Empire, Skarsgård admitted,
00:27It really affected me. Orlok is an occult sorcerer, and it did a number on me in terms
00:32of just trying to inhabit that space."
00:33It was our wedding. When we turned around, everyone was dead."
00:42In an Esquire interview, Skarsgård said the work followed him home at the end of the shooting
00:45day, and that he was still struggling to get out of that dark place, sharing,
00:49It was like conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had
00:53been conjured inside of me."
00:55It's the scariest performance of my career. I've never been more scared in playing a character."
01:02Skarsgård confessed that playing Count Orlok was exhausting in every way, so much so that
01:06he claims to be over those sorts of characters, saying,
01:09When we were done with it, I was like, I never want to play something this evil again. I
01:13never want to put on prosthetics again."
01:15Prosthetics-heavy roles like Orlok mean spending several hours in the makeup chair every day,
01:19but that's not the only issue. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Skarsgård said
01:23that he was concerned about the makeup, explaining,
01:25I was worried that I couldn't perform through it, that it would feel like giant prosthetic
01:29pieces, and I couldn't come alive through that.
01:31The actor was also worried about looking ridiculous. While the final look is fantastic on camera,
01:36it took a while to get there. He admitted,
01:38There was definitely a stage when they hadn't put everything on where I was like, I look
01:42like the f----- Grinch or a f----- Goblin. I did not like at all how it was translating.
01:47More and more actors have been speaking out about the lasting impact drastically changing
01:51your body for a role can have. While Skarsgård isn't among them, at least not yet, there's
01:56no denying that he made some significant and potentially hazardous changes to his physical
02:00appearance to play Count Orlok.
02:03This creature is a force more powerful than evil.
02:09Director Robert Eggers talked about it during an interview with Total Film, pointing out
02:13how committed his star was by explaining,
02:15Bill lost a tremendous amount of weight. He's so transformed in every aspect that I don't
02:19know if people will give him the credit.
02:21It's a different look than we've seen of any vampire character. You feel the dark forces
02:27coursing through his body.
02:29Among the other physical transformations Eggers mentions is the way Skarsgård altered his
02:33voice for the role. Orlok speaks in very deep tones, and apart from one guttural scream
02:38right at the end of the movie, it's all Skarsgård. The actor lowered his voice by a full octave
02:42by undertaking a month and a half of training in vocal exercises with an opera singer. While
02:46the end product is amazing to hear, the kind of techniques used by opera singers can have
02:50a lasting impact on one's health, including such seemingly unrelated conditions as gastroesophageal
02:55reflux.
02:58Skarsgård has always wanted to work with Robert Eggers. He was originally slated to
03:01play a role in Eggers' film The North Man, but production delays led to scheduling conflicts,
03:05and he had to bow out. But that only made him more determined to work with the auteur
03:09director. In a sit-down with And Other Magazine, Skarsgård said,
03:13I was like, I've tasted Eggers. I've tasted what a collaboration with him would be like.
03:18He is coming.
03:21But when it came to Nosferatu, the job wasn't a given. Skarsgård actually auditioned for
03:26the roles of Frederic Harding, a skeptic played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Thomas Hutter,
03:30the real estate agent played by Nicholas Holt. In fact, he was initially cast as Hutter,
03:34but Eggers later changed his mind. Skarsgård was understandably disappointed until Eggers
03:39handed him a major surprise. Skarsgård admitted to Eggers,
03:43When you reached out about the Count Orlok role, I was in complete shock,
03:46and utterly terrified, but also excited. It didn't make any sense to me at all.
03:50But Skarsgård trusted Eggers, and he eventually came around to the idea of playing Orlok.
03:55Despite his initial trepidation, it became a once-in-a-lifetime experience that he says
03:58he'll carry with him going forward. Speaking with Pink Villa, he explained,
04:02When you have a director who is so specific, it's actually liberating.
04:06I've been thinking about how to do this story and how to make it my own for a very long time.
04:11Skarsgård went on to share some of the things he learned about Orlok,
04:14and about himself, while prepping the role with Eggers, recalling,
04:17Robert created a digital drawing of the character years before filming,
04:20and when I saw it, I thought, that's me. That's what I look like on the inside.
04:25Given that Skarsgård has said that he's overplaying evil characters that require prosthetics,
04:29does that mean he's done with the IT franchise? After all, becoming Pennywise requires a lot of
04:33work, both mentally and physically, not to mention the horror clown's dark history.
04:37Fortunately for fans, Skarsgård isn't ready to say goodbye to Pennywise just yet.
04:42In May 2024, it was announced that he'll be reprising the role in the
04:45upcoming prequel series Welcome to Derry in 2025. The news came a full year after Nosferatu wrapped,
04:51so it could be that Skarsgård had recovered from the experience and was ready to dive back
04:55into the dark side. There's also the fact that playing Pennywise isn't quite as restrictive
04:59as Count Orlok. In his interview with Entertainment Weekly, Skarsgård shared
05:03his reaction to seeing the model for Orlok's makeup for the first time, saying,
05:07"...I was terrified just looking at the image. It looked so, so different from me,
05:11way more so than Pennywise."
05:13Eggers agreed that Orlok was on another level, telling Total Film,
05:17"...you can see Bill as Pennywise in the IT makeup. You can't detect any Bill here."
05:21Skarsgård has mentioned in interviews that he much prefers it when his face and voice
05:25are left intact and unaltered. Well, that explains why the draw of playing Pennywise
05:29is still there for him.