Who Plays Count Orlok in ‘Nosferatu’? Director Explains Why Bill Skarsgard Is Completely Unrecognizable in New Dracula Adaptation | Bill Skarsgard, Nosferatu | Just Jared: Celebrity News and Gossip
Bill Skarsgard is completely unrecognizable while playing Count Orlok in the new movie Nosferatu and there’s no way to know it’s him unless you look at the credits!
The 34-year-old actor is no stranger to wearing prosthetics and transforming into a character after playing Pennywise the clown in the It movies.
Director Robert Eggers is opening up about Bill‘s reaction to the Count Orlok look. No photos of the look have been released so far, so you’ll have to see the movie to check out the makeup!
Keep reading to find out more…
“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–k?’ 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,’” Robert told Deadline.
He continued, “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.”
Robert originally intended to have an older actor in the role, but he knew Bill was the right choice after he saw him in the makeup.
He said, “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.’ What’s very interesting is not just the physical transformation, not just all the vocal work that he did, but the darkness that he needed to actually inhabit. It sounds silly, but it was real. He told me the kind of things he was thinking about, and it was frightening. And I’m glad he was able to go there. It wouldn’t have worked otherwise.”
Watch the trailer for the movie right now!