Nosferatu Changed Bill Skarsgård Forever

Bill Skarsgård is no stranger to transformative performances as monstrous villains — anyone who had nightmares over Skarsgård's version of Pennywise in the "It" movies can attest to this. Yet even with his prior forays into horror acting with heavy prosthetics, playing Count Orlok in Robert Eggers' 2024 remake of "Nosferatu" presented a series of fresh challenges for the actor.

Moviegoers won't soon forget the grotesque yet strangely alluring evil of Skarsgård's Orlok, and neither will Skarsgård forget the experience of making "Nosferatu," a chilling, critically-acclaimed film. Skarsgård's transformation into the legendary vampire has expanded his abilities, but — going by what he's said in interviews — the role has impacted him in several unexpected ways. Here's how "Nosferatu" has potentially changed Bill Skarsgård's life and career forever.

The majority of critics have hailed "Nosferatu" as a success, and Bill Skarsgård's turn as Orlok has come in for particular praise. Widespread acclaim for a performance is the stuff of dreams for actors, but this won't change the fact that inhabiting such an evil character was a nightmare for Skarsgård. In fact, it took a real psychological toll on him, to the point that wrapping the film was "a relief," he said.

"It really affected me," Skarsgård said of the film during an interview with Empire. "Orlok is an occult sorcerer, and it did a number on me in terms of just trying to inhabit that space." The actor also went into detail about how his work followed him home during the shoot when he spoke with Esquire, adding that he was still struggling to come out of that dark place long after his work on the project was done. "It was like conjuring pure evil," he explained. "It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me."

Bill Skarsgård has revealed that playing Count Orlok in "Nosferatu" was so physically and mentally exhausting that he's now done with playing this kind of character. Speaking to Empire magazine about his role in the film, he said: "When we were done with it, I was like, 'I never want to play something this evil again. I never want to put on prosthetics again.'" Prosthetics-heavy roles like this one equate to several hours in makeup every day, but that's not the only issue.

Skarsgård revealed during an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he quickly became concerned about the makeup being a hindrance. "I was worried that I couldn't perform through it, that it would feel like giant prosthetic pieces, and I couldn't come alive through that," he explained. The actor was also anxious about looking kind of goofy — while the final look is fantastic on camera, it took a while to get there. "There was definitely a stage when they hadn't put everything on, where I was like, 'I look like the f***ing Grinch or a f***ing goblin,'" he said. "I did not like at all how it was translating."

Given that Bill Skarsgård has stated that he's over playing evil characters that require prosthetics, does that mean he's done playing the iconic, titular villain in the "It" franchise? After all, Skarsgård's transformation into Pennywise requires a lot of work, both mentally and physically, and Pennywise definitely has a dark history. Fortunately for fans of the Stephen King character, Skarsgård isn't ready to say goodbye to Pennywise just yet — he was confirmed to be returning for the upcoming prequel series "Welcome to Derry" in May 2024. This confirmation came a full year after "Nosferatu" wrapped, so it could be that Skarsgård had simply gotten over the experience and was ready to dive back in.

There's also the fact that playing Pennywise isn't quite as restrictive as Count Orlok. "I was terrified just looking at the image," Skarsgård told Entertainment Weekly about seeing a reference model for the makeup design. "It looked so, so different from me, way more so than Pennywise." Robert Eggers also pointed out that playing Count Orlok was on another level when discussing "Nosferatu" with Total Film. He said: "You can see Bill [as Pennywise] in the 'It' make-up; you can't detect any Bill here." Skarsgård has stated in interviews that he much prefers it when his face and voice are left intact and unaltered, so that goes some way to explaining why the draw of playing Pennywise is still there for him.

More and more actors have been speaking out about the lasting impact that drastically changing your body type for a role can have on a person. While Bill Skarsgård isn't among them (at least, not yet), there's no denying that he made some significant and potentially hazardous changes to his body to play the role of Count Orlok in "Nosferatu." In fact, Robert Eggers himself talked about this during his interview with Total Film, pointing out how committed his star was to getting the right frame. "Bill lost a tremendous amount of weight," the director said. "He's so transformed in every aspect that I don't know if people will give him the credit."

Among the other aspects that Eggers is referring to here is the way in which Skarsgård altered his voice for the role. Orlok speaks in very deep tones, and, apart from one guttural scream right at the end of the movie, it's all Skarsgård that you hear. The dedicated Swede lowered his voice by a full octave through a month and a half of training and vocal exercises with opera singer Ásgerður Júníusdóttir. While the end product is amazing to hear, the kind of techniques used by opera singers can have a lasting impact on vocal health, with gastroesophageal reflux being one known risk according to the National Library of Medicine.

"Nosferatu" marked a big moment in Bill Skarsgård's life because he's always wanted to work with Robert Eggers. He was originally meant to play a role in Eggers' film "The Northman," but production delays led to scheduling conflicts for Skarsgård and he wasn't able to take part. However, he knew that he absolutely had to work with Eggers at some point in his career. "I was like, I've tasted Eggers, I've tasted what a collaboration with him would be like," Skarsgård said when he and Eggers sat down for a chat organized by AnOther magazine.

Skarsgård actually auditioned for the roles of Friedrich Harding (the skeptic played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Thomas Hutter (the real estate agent played by Nicholas Hoult), and he was initially cast as the latter. Eggers would later change his mind and cast Hoult as Hutter, and Skarsgård told himself that perhaps it just wasn't meant to be — but Eggers had a big surprise in store for him. "When you reached out about the Count Orlok role, I was in complete shock," Skarsgård told Eggers. "And utterly terrified ... but also excited. It didn't make any sense to me at all."

Skarsgård trusted Eggers and he eventually came around to the idea of playing Orlok. Despite his initial trepidation, it became a once-in-a-lifetime experience that he'll carry with him for the rest of his days. "When you have a director who is so specific, it's actually liberating," Skarsgård told Pink Villa, adding that he learned some things about himself during his prep work with Eggers. "Robert created a digital drawing of the character years before filming, and when I saw it, I thought, 'That's me — that's what I look like on the inside.'"