'Nosferatu' stars including Lily-Rose Depp, Emma Corrin and Nicholas Hoult attend the film's London premiere

Record ID: 1861192

  • Title: 'Nosferatu' stars including Lily-Rose Depp, Emma Corrin and Nicholas Hoult attend the film's London premiere
  • Date: 4th December 2024
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 4, 2024) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** DEPP WALKING OVER TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, LILY-ROSE DEPP, SAYING: "There was already so much on the page about Ellen that was so fascinating, so complex, and there was just so much for me to dive into. But I think, to me it was about really depicting th
  • Embargoed: 18th December 2024 21:40
  • Keywords: Bill Skarsgard Emma Corrin Lily-Rose Depp Nicholas Hoult Nosferatu Nosferatu 2024 film Nosferatu film Nosferatu premiere Robert Eggers Willem Dafoe
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA003362529112024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Filmmaker Robert Eggers brings a classic folklore vampire back to the screen in "Nosferatu", a gothic horror film built around the trajectory of its female heroine, played by Lily-Rose Depp.
    Written and directed by Eggers, the movie is a reimagining of the 1922 silent film "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror", which in turn was inspired by Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula".
    "Nosferatu" is set in a fictional Baltic German city in the 1830s and follows young bride Ellen Hutter (Depp), who has been haunted by horrifying visions since childhood. As her estate agent husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) prepares to set out on a business trip to Transylvania, Ellen's condition deteriorates. Thomas is promised that his meeting with the elusive client Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) will be richly reimbursed, helping the young couple to start building their life together. Instead, the encounter triggers a terrifying chain of events.
    "There was just so much for me to dive into," Depp said at the film's premiere in London on Wednesday (December 4). "To me it was about really depicting the kind of like emotional battle that she's going through, the internal battle that's going on within her, and to give a voice to this woman that at the time kind of wouldn't have had one. That was very special."
    Eggers, 41, whose credits include "The Lighthouse" and "The Northman", said he had wanted to make the movie ever since he saw the original film at the age of nine.
    "I just wanted to make a great sweeping gothic romance that was also legitimately a scary horror movie," he said, adding that the vampire he set out to depict was "the vampire from folklore that hundreds of years ago people actually thought was real".
    For Skarsgard, whose other on-screen transformations include the clown Pennywise in the 2017 movie "It" and its 2019 sequel, said becoming the fear-provoking Count Orlok required hours of work with prosthetics teams and vocal coaches.
    "The face and the hands, which I wore when I had clothes on in the movie, was three hours. And the full body ones for where I'm not wearing clothes in the movie was six hours," the Swedish actor said.
    "It's a whole process. The first time you try it on, you're studying yourself and studying how your face translates onto the new face and what expressions work and what angles don't work," he said.
    Depp worked with a movement coach to prepare for the scenes in which Helen is possessed by a demonic force.
    "Nosferatu" also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin as family friends who take Ellen in during Thomas' travels and Willem Dafoe in the role or Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz. The film is produced by Chris and Eleanor Columbus.
    "I think at its heart it stays true to the very original deep roots of the Nosferatu folklore. I think people who have a strong awareness of that folklore and its history will really appreciate that," said Corrin, adding: "I also think it really embraces the love story in so many iterations. You know, it's about sisterly love. It's about forbidden love and shame. It's about marital love. It's about loving yourself despite your dark sides I think that, yeah, it explores all of that."
    The film was shot on highly detailed and immersive large-scale sets which lent it authenticity, said Hoult. The use of real rats in some scenes added to the experience.
    "Occasionally they'd be filled with 5000 rats as well, which, I'm not terrified of rats, I don't think, but it gave it an added element of ick, I guess," Hoult said.
    "Nosferatu" begins its global cinematic rollout on Dec. 25.
    (Production: Marissa Davison, Hanna Rantala)
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