Director breaks down erotic vampire moments

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains mild spoilers about “Nosferatu,” now playing in theaters.

Robert Eggers’ fourth film — “Nosferatu,” in theaters today via Focus Features — is a bold, star-studded reimagining of FW Murnau’s masterful 1922 silent film of the same name. Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård play the beautiful Ellen Hutter and the grotesque vampire Count Orlok, respectively, alongside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Egger regulars Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. The beautiful and haunting tale builds on the dark historical story of Eggers’ previous films — 2015’s “The Witch,” 2019’s “The Lighthouse” and 2022’s “The Northman” — and infuses it with drama, lust and an electrifying erotic undercurrent. Eggers, as funny and self-deprecating in conversation as his films are dark, spoke with Black about creating a new vision for a film that has influenced him since childhood, his unique partnership with director Chris Columbus and the viral “Nosferatu” merch.

Why do you think the original movie affected you from such a young age?

I was already into vampires and I had seen the Bela Lugosi movie a few times and I wanted to be Dracula for Halloween. But “Nosferatu”… In the new versions that have recently been restored, you can see the bald cap of Max Schreck and the grease paint that makes his eyebrows. On the VHS I had when I was a kid it was made from a broken down 16mm print and you couldn’t see any of it and he was a genuine vampire somehow. Because the thing was so degraded, it felt like an excavated archive from the past, and the atmosphere seemed more eerie. To use a word I seem to be obsessed with, it was “authentic”.

You wrote an entire short story to help you prepare to make the film. Is it something that would ever see the light of day?

It’s written pretty badly because I’m not a novelist. Some of my scripts aren’t too bad if you’re into reading them. But the script is an unfinished thing to make you make the film. The short story was also very much a tool to get me to write the script. So no, it stinks.

You’ve said you’re grateful it took you 10 years to get this film off the ground so you could direct it at a point in your career where you can tell the story the way you wanted to. What do you think you were able to accomplish now in your directing career that you might not have been able to accomplish in your younger days?

It is the accumulation of knowledge that helps me bring my imagination to the screen with more specificity. I’ve only done four films and that’s not it such a brilliant career. But I had more control: It was a story and, frankly, an IP and a budget that made it so Focus Features was able to give me an incredible amount of creative freedom and also exceptional support. So I was put in the incredibly lucky situation of being able to make the film I wanted.

Was there a specific moment when you knew Lily-Rose could pull off the role of Ellen?

I had met with her because I had seen some work she had done that I thought was quite strong, but she had never carried a film. But as soon as I met with her, I was pretty sure she could do the job because she understood the character. I said to her, “I’d like to cast you in this role, but you have to audition anyway. So, let’s make sure you pass the audition.” So we prepared a little for the audition, but she knew what she was doing. She had to do two difficult scenes: the monologue about death at the wedding, and then she had to do some of the big crazy scene at the end of the confrontation with her husband. But it was so unrehearsed—the same kind of raw ferocity that the performance in that scene has in the movie she brought to the audition, and it was just undeniable how strong she wanted to be. I can talk about how amazing Lily is all day, but when I audition for actors, I want to see people make strong choices and go for it. The movies I make are in high demand, so I want to see you’re hungry enough to go for it.

When did you realize that Orlok’s look would include a prominent moustache?

So to try and make a scarier vampire than we’ve had in a while, I went back to folklore. At least it’s something I like, but the early folk vampire was written about by people who believed vampires existed. There should be some good stuff there, and the vampire of folklore is a rotting walking undead corpse. And then the question became: “What does a dead Transylvanian nobleman look like?” That means this complex Hungarian costume with very long sleeves, strange high heels and a furry hat. It also means a moustache. No matter what, there’s no way this guy can’t have a mustache. Try to find a Transylvanian of legal age who can grow a mustache who doesn’t have a mustache. It’s part of the culture. If you don’t want to bother googling, think Vlad the Impaler. Even Bram Stoker had the sense to give Dracula a mustache in the book.

Another visual question: When did the striking final image of the film, with Orlok and Ellen locked in an eternal embrace, come to you as a way to close the story?

Although I struggled to figure out the blocking Orlok’s death, the last shot was always going to be the last shot. It’s nice to have our own version of “Death and the Maiden” motive. I think it looks pretty nice.

(thinks to himself, laughs.) No, that’s a bit too demented.

I can do demented!

Well, if you look very closely at that shot, Orlok is still bleeding from his eyes, ears, and nose. There are some maggot holes in his back. We also rigged it so he would bleed out of his anus, but it was very comical. When we started rolling, we literally had to put a plug in it.

Is there anything you learned about filmmaking while making this film that stuck with you?

If you are working with thousands of rats, it will be a very smelly situation. As intelligent as they are, they are also incontinent.

Did you learn anything about yourself while making this film?

One of the coolest things was that the creative producer was Chris Columbus. Obviously, we seem like an odd match. But having one of the masters of orthodox Hollywood storytelling by my side at the screen every single day was so immensely helpful. We make such different movies, and he wasn’t trying to Chris Columbus-ify “Nosferatu” — he was trying to make this the best Robert Eggers movie it could be. But his thinking would at times be an antidote to me and my cinematographer Jarin Blaschke’s arty-farty tendencies. He was a good safety net to say, “Are you telling the story as clearly as possible at this moment?” Most of those kinds of conversations happened in preparation, when he was looking at storyboards. If I had my way, Chris would produce all my films. Unfortunately, he is also a director, so he has to direct his own movie (laughs). But if there’s ever a situation where I don’t have him, Chris’s voice will speak loudly to help me check myself.

How did that collaboration come about?

When I finished “The Witch” we ran out of money. We do post production with Monopoly money and Chris and his daughter Eleanor’s company Maiden Voyage was originally set up to help first and second time filmmakers. Eleanor was a fan of the script for “The Witch” and potentially wanted to make the movie. But Chris wasn’t really into it at first, but when they saw a clip of the film, he changed his mind. And then they helped finish the film and that’s when I first met Chris and he’s been a mentor ever since.

The film weaves in some very erotic scenes as it tells its story. How did you decide the role you wanted sexuality to play, as in how much you wanted to portray on screen versus leaving it up to the imagination?

One of the biggest cinematic influences on this film is Jack Clayon’s “The Innocents”, where all this sexual stuff is left to the imagination. And just that burns in your imagination. It’s so powerful, but I’ve seen versions of “The Turn of the Screw” where they make the sexuality explicit and it really doesn’t work. So definitely we took a chance to bring this to the forefront. But I think part of what maybe makes it work the way it does is that the story is told entirely through the eyes of Ellen, the female protagonist. It will allow for greater potential for emotional and psychological complexity because you are centering around this woman who is a somnambulist.

Sleepwalkers in the 19th century were believed to have a foot in another realm and an understanding of darkness. She has this understanding of this other world, and this other way of thinking that she doesn’t have the language for, so she’s isolated. But the attraction to it is very strong and so people see her as melancholic and hysterical and we can see her struggling within herself. I think the fact that it stems from the realities of a woman who is a victim of 19th century society is something that hopefully makes it work. I also think perhaps that the vampire is physically repulsive adds another layer where you have the eroticism mixed with the repulsion in a very clear way.

Some of the official merch inspired by the film has caught the attention of the internet, including one popcorn bucket shaped like a coffin and a life-size $20,000 sarcophagus bed. Were you in any discussions about this “Nosferatu” gear?

Anything embarrassing, I’ve said, “Please don’t.” I don’t come up with the ideas, but I think they’re fun.

Are you the owner of a sarcophagus bed?

I can’t afford one! (laughs)

Looking ahead, what can you reveal about any upcoming projects?

I’ve written a lot of screenplays, I’m writing a few screenplays. Some things are bigger, some things are smaller. There is an appeal in working out all these different scales to tell different kinds of stories. Unfortunately, I don’t have a very big imagination and I keep being drawn to the same kinds of themes and tropes. They’re all Robert Eggers-y, for better or for worse.

So you couldn’t see yourself doing something like a broad modern comedy or something else off-base?

I mean, look: Aside from the fact that it wouldn’t appeal to me, why the hell would you want me to do it? There are things that I have skills in, so I should probably embrace them and continue to get better at them. It is clear that you want to stretch yourself, but as if I will not do something that I have nothing to do with.

Any movement on the Rasputin miniseries that was teased a while back?

Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be on location in Russia anytime soon.

You’ve been so busy finishing “Nosferatu,” but have you had a chance to see any horror this year, and if so, what did you like?

I really like “The Substance”. It had a very consistent, clear, specific vision and was very well executed. As a filmmaker, you can’t help but admire it and fight for it.