Nicholas Hoult was almost attacked by wolves while filming ‘Nosferatu’

Real life and fantasy merged in Nicholas Hoult’s daring escape on screen.

The actor appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Dec. 23, where he recounted a terrifying moment that occurred during filming Nosferatu. Hoult stars alongside Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe and Emma Corrin in the horror drama, which is released on Christmas Day.

Meyers noted that Hoult is “terrified for a large part of this movie.”

Hoult said that whenever he had been truly terrified in his own life, the feeling only manifested internally. So conveying dread and fear outwardly for this film was a new experience for him.

Once he felt “real fear”. Nosferatu set was, however, when he was hunted by wolves. Hoult’s character, Thomas Hutter, escapes out of a window in an attempt to escape the wolves that are chasing him.

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As they were on set preparing to shoot the scene, the wolves had to be held back from Hoult.

“I kind of run on the spot and get hyped up before the shoot,” Hoult said. “And they are held back from me on a leash – barking like with death in their eyes. They want to eat.”

Hoult added that in one shot he barely made it out the window when the wolves were “unleashed” after him. That take was useless, he said, because director Robert Eggers told him he was making a silly face. Hoult reviewed the footage himself and agreed that it was too funny for the final cut, but confirmed to the director that it was “real fear”.

When the picture was filmed, the actor realized that he did not know what would happen if the wolves actually came to him.

“Like, I don’t know what’s going to happen if I don’t get out the window,” he said. “Like, what are they trained to do?”

Nosferatu is in theaters December 25.