Bill Skarsgård transforms into an undead vampire in the new horror movie Nosferatu and according to the actor, it was a very isolating process. The It: Chapter Two star is no stranger to onscreen shapeshifting, but he tells 12DOVE that the process of becoming Count Orlok in Robert Eggers' reimagining of the classic vampire tale left him distant from his co-stars.
"It happens kind of organically when you're in so much prosthetics and there's a whole process for me to access that voice," the actor explains. "And I had a whole routine that I had to go through and access it. So I was, like, very, very, very separate. I just felt very isolated while we were shooting."
His co-star Nicholas Hoult – who plays Thomas Hutter and is the first character to encounter the vampire – agrees that there was some distance while filming. "It felt like we were kind of separate anyway, because obviously Bill was in prosthetics so then had a different makeup trailer to the rest of us," he adds. "And yeah, you'd be getting ready separately, and then we'd meet on set."
Skarsgård jokes that he was often stuck in "the Orlok tent," to prepare. However, even though there was distance between the actors, he recalls Hoult reaching out to him. "You were very nice to me, I remember," he grins. "Between takes you're, like, 'I've been through it, it's hard, isn't it? Do you want some water?'"
Hoult, who himself was in prosthetics for Beast in the X-Men movies, admits he could relate. "I know how it can feel very lonely in there and isolating and you're hot, and you're kind of like, this is a sad day," he tells Skarsgård. "I wanted to make sure you're alright."
Interestingly, Skarsgård actually almost played Hoult's role in the movie when director Robert Eggers was originally planning to shoot the movie 10 years ago. "I had known Bill for quite some time, and we've been trying to find a project," The Northman director explains to us. "I've been trying to make this movie for around 10 years, and Bill initially was gonna play Nicholas Hoult's part, but when I saw It: Chapter Two, there's a scene where he plays Pennywise as a middle-aged man, as a human, and there was a lot of weight to it and a lot of depth to it.
"I believed, even though Bill is this very young, boyish-looking person, that he can really change and then, because of his height and his physicality, I thought this could be really interesting. And then he did an incredible screen test that we prepared for together, and it was obvious that he was Orlok."
Nosferatu is released in US theaters on Christmas Day and UK cinemas on New Year's Day. Read our Nosferatu review here. For more scares, check out our guides to upcoming horror movies and the best horror movies of all time.
