As you know, Willem Dafoe has a fun connection to Nosferatu, dating back to his amazingly fun portrayal of Max Schreck in the 2000 dark comedy Shadow of the Vampire.
The film is a fictionalized take on the making of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic Nosferatuwith Dafoe playing Schreck as if he were an actual vampire. Now, Dafoe is revisiting the iconic world of Nosferatu in Robert Eggers‘ highly anticipated reimagining, where he plays the eccentric professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, Dafoe reflected on his long-standing relationship with the Nosferatu legacy. “To prepare for Shadow of the Vampire… it was a very different movie.
“It’s really sort of a strange comedy. But I watched Nosferatu, the original Murnau, many, many times because… I was playing Max Schreck who plays Nosferatu. So I was very familiar with the film.”
This deep familiarity the original film gave Dafoe a unique perspective on Eggers’ fresh take, and he says: “It’s been with me a long time. So very different, and I’m sure I bring that with me, but it’s a whole different ball game, and through [Eggers’] eyes, it’s a completely different experience.”
One of the biggest differences in Eggers’ Nosferatu is the portrayal of Count Orlok, who is being played by Bill Skarsgård. While Max Schreck’s eerie, rat-like appearance in the 1922 film remains iconic, Skarsgård’s version takes the character in an entirely new direction.
Dafoe was impressed by the transformation, describing it as both unexpected and grounded in authenticity. He shared:
“I loved it because it was something that we hadn’t seen before, and it was surprising. It looked like a dead Romanian nobleman, a guy that had been dead for a while. And it came from someplace… it had real roots in something. It steered clear of all the other vampires and Nosferatu before it.”
The director previously talked about Skarsgård’s reaction when he was first presented with the look of the creature, saying:
“Bill sees the sculpt of the bust and he freaks out, and he’s like, ‘That doesn’t look anything like me, this guy didn’t look like me when he was even alive. What the f*ck?’ He wasn’t mean, but he was alarmed. And I was like, ‘Well, that’s the point, that you’re totally transforming into somebody else.’
“And then, he’s putting the makeup on and he’s like, ‘Ugh, I look like a goblin. This is terrible.’ And then, once they put the hair on, even though the makeup wasn’t totally finished, I saw the first moment when he was like, ‘OK, this is cool. This is a person.’ I started to see him in the mirror, playing around, trying to do something.”
“That was the next step of enjoying who the character was and could be. I think it was the second full makeup and costume test, Bill entered, took his mark, and it was like, ‘Orlok’s there. He’s there.’
Nosferatu tells the dark and twisted tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Lily-Rose Depp) in 19th-century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.
Eggers said: “It’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Gothic horror movie. And I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case.”
Nosferatu hits theaters December 25.
