‘It feels like a Christmas trip.’ Nicholas Hoult and Seth Meyers Have All the Nosferatu Jokes Until the Actor Admits He Was Literally Hunted by Wolves on Set

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Robert Eggers’ Nosferatuthat hits theaters tomorrow isn’t what you’d call a traditional Christmas release. Instead of offering Christmas cheer or gift-giving, it’s more about instilling terror and monstrous murder. This contrast made for easy fodder in a recent Nicholas Hoult interview with talk show host Seth Meyers, who jokingly refers to the film as a “Christmas room,” but the conversation took a hard turn toward the scary when the actor discussed experiencing genuine fear during the making of The new horror movie.

Last week Nicholas Hoult was a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyersand during a discussion about depicting terror in a performance Superman star revealed that a particular scene in the film didn’t really require any “acting”. There is a scene in Nosferatu where his character, estate agent Thomas Hutter, is hunted by wolves unleashed by Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok, and there were real animals used on set. Hoult said,

Robert Eggers, the director, is incredible, so I trusted him. There was a time when it was real fear where we have these wolves in the film. They chased me out of a window when I tried to escape Count Orlok’s castle. And I’m like running on the spot and getting hyped for the shoot and they’re like being held back from me on a leash, barking, like with death in their eyes. They want to eat.

In it Nosferatu sequence, Thomas Hutter is chased through narrow corridors and makes his way through a window, but there was a shot where Nicholas Hoult tripped a bit. The production had to reset and reshoot because the actor was making a silly face at the moment, but when he watched the playback, Hoult found himself experiencing genuine fear as he realized he didn’t know what would have happened if the wolves purely had actually caught him. He continued,

I was like, ‘Whew, okay, this is intense.’ And then there’s a time when I’m running and sliding and I barely make it out the window as they’re chasing me because they’ve kind of let loose after me. And I got out, but then Rob said, ‘Cut, cut, cut. No, you made a silly face. We can’t use that’. He said, “Come and see, see what your face did.” And my face goes like “Wheeew.” I thought, ‘Yeah, it’s not great, but you know, it’s real fear.’ Because I realized I didn’t ask what would happen if the wolves came to me.

Nicholas Hoult also admits that he never actually got an answer to that particular, important question. It’s kind of freaky to think about – but it also means he only had that one close call; the wolves never caught up with him.

Audiences everywhere will be able to experience this moment of extreme fear for themselves starting tomorrow, which Nosferatu will play in theaters everywhere on December 25th. Also starring Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Willem Dafoe, the film has received high marks from critics, and if you’re not entirely sold on whether or not to see it, read my four-star CinemaBlend review of the dark vampire movie and see if it convinces you one way or the other.