‘It was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do’: You’d never know this actor in a remake of one of the greatest films of all time

Bill Skarsgård likes to disappear on screen. So was the horror film It, in which he played the clown Penny-Grip. Along with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatus, he pushes all sliders to the extreme. His transformation in the skin of a famous vampire is such that the actor is completely unrecognizable.

This new version is much closer to the original, signed by Murnau in 1922, than the Werner Herzog version released in 1979. The director tries to recreate the essence of the silent film by offering another reading from the point of view of the female character – brilliantly. Interpreted by Lily-Rose Depp – and focused on sexuality – in the manner of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula.

intensive transformation

Bill Skarsgård spent six hours in the makeup chair to get into the skin of his character. “The first time he saw the prosthetic makeup sculpture, he was horrifiedRobert Eggers of AlloCiné reveals. On the third screen test with the entire costume complete, it just disappeared.”

The actor did not stop at the body. He also changed his voice dramatically by training with an opera singer who lowered his voice an octave. “It was the hardest thing he had ever had to do.“- adds the filmmaker. For more than a month and a half, Bill Skarsgård recorded himself and continued training on the set.

The adventure was so intense for the actor that he no longer wants to work on prosthetics. “I will never do such a dark thing again in my life“- he said Empire.

Why do we love vampires so much?

For Robert Eggers, the pressure to remake Nosferatu is great:I’m not just making a vampire movie. It’s the movie that kind of invented horror movies, and there have been other remakes. So you are fighting your own pride and your own self-confidenceTo address his fear, the director did a lot of research on the period to make it as realistic as possible.

Why does the vampire cause so much excitement? The filmmaker has his own idea: “In many ways vampires are great at adapting them. There is room for my traditional folk vampire. There is room for a blade. There is room for Edward Cullen. The essence of it all is the fairy tale within, the ideas, these inspirations… I don’t see how these themes can die one day, they are eternal… like a vampire..”

Comments collected by Megan Choquette in Paris on December 6, 2024.

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, in theaters December 25.