Focus Features revealed Robert Eggers’ long-awaited gothic vampire horror Nosferatu Thursday night at a special screening for selected guild members and the press.
During a post-screening Q&A session with Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro at the Directors Guild of America Theater in Los Angeles. Nosferatu Writer-director Robert Eggers revealed the key factors that helped make the movie, including trained rats, six hours of brutal makeup, and lead actress Lily-Rose Depp’s dedication to learning the physical movements required of her character.
Depp, who plays Ellen Hotter, the wife of Thomas, played by Nicholas Hoult, has scenes that involve her twisting her body in ways that seem almost inhuman. During the Q&A, del Toro said he used Bhutto’s dance teacher on the set of his upcoming movie FrankensteinHe asked if Eggers had done the same for Depp’s choreography. “Yes [we had] Marie-Gabrielle Rotti, Bhutto’s choreographer who also worked with her NorthmanEggers said. “Lily did tons and tons and tons and tons of physical work with it.” The results were so impressive, “A lot of people wondered if some of these things were computer-optimized, but she did all these things physically,” Eggers said.
The exact details of the plot remain under wraps, but Depp and Holt are joined in the cast by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Coren as the couple Friedrich and Bill Harding, and Willem Dafoe as mystery-obsessed Professor Albin Eberhardt von Franz and Bill Skarsgård. As Count Orlok of Transylvania Undead. “I did it in a Hammer Horror style where they were British, even though they’re in Germany,” Eggers said.
Eggers – who also wrote and directed The Witch and Lighthouse– He said who Nosferatu“Even though it’s a remake, it’s likely to be my personal project.” He detailed his early obsession with FW Murnau’s original 1922 silent film Nosferatuincluding actually directing it as a school play, in which Eggers played Count Orlok. “I’m obsessed with the past,” he told del Toro. “I don’t know exactly why, but it seems like the way I like to explore where we are and where we’re going is to go back in time. And I think if I hadn’t made movies, I might have been like an archaeologist.
When it came to creating Count Orlok’s look for this movie, Eggers said he started thinking, “Well, what would a dead nobleman from Transylvania actually look like?” What would his hairstyle be? Obviously he has to have a mustache.”
Eggers said that some aspects of Skarsgård’s performance where Orlok required six hours of makeup. “When Bill first saw the bust for the first time [of his character]he was saying: “This guy didn’t look like me when he was alive.” And he was very scared. But once he put it on, I saw the moment when he was inspired by the makeup and realized he could do something with it.
Then there were the rodents. “There are 5,000 real mice,” Eggers said. “So, if there are mice in the foreground, they are real, and then they fade out and become CG mice in the background. And they were well-trained. However, there was an unfortunate side effect of working with the furry little creatures: “I didn’t know rats were incontinent, so the smell is crazy.”
He said Eggers made more than 60 sets for the movie and “almost all of the interiors were built.” He credited his producer Chris Columbus for encouraging him on this front. “Chris is a creative producer… He would go through the comics and say: “Where’s that rhythm?” Where did this story win? It’s in your script. I don’t see it in the storyboards. It’s not enough for them to say this line, we have to see it visually.”
Del Toro congratulated Eggers NosferatuShe told him: “Every time you come out with a new movie, I’m so anxious to see it, because I know I’m going to see something, candy, with great passion, great care, more than anything else.” A unique and incredibly vibrant voice in the movie, and I thank you for that.
Nosferatu Released on December 25th.