Director Breaks Down Erotic Vampire Moments

SPOILER ALERT: This article grasps gentle spoilers about “Nosferatu,” now take parting in theaters.

Robert Eggers‘ fourth film — “Nosferatu,” in theaters today via Focus Features — is a bageder, starry reimagining of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 masterful mute film of the same name. Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård star as the gorgeous Ellen Hutter and grotesque vampire Count Orlok, esteemively, alengthyside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Eggers standards Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. The gorgeous and sinister tale produces on the illogical historical lore of Eggers’ previous films — 2015’s “The Witch,” 2019’s “The Lighthouse” and 2022’s “The Northman” — and infuses it with drama, desire and an electric romantic undercurrent. Eggers, as funny and self-deprecating in conversation as his films are illogical, spoke with Variety about creating a novel vision of a film that has impactd him since childhood, his exceptional partnership with straightforwardor Chris Columbus and the viral “Nosferatu” merch.

Why do you skinnyk the exceptional film struck you from such a lesser age?

I was already into vampires and I’d seen the Bela Lugosi movie a confineed times, and I would be Dracula for Hpermiteen. But “Nosferatu”… In the novel versions that have been recently revampd, you can see the bald cap on Max Schreck and the grmitigate color that produces his eyebrows. On the VHS I had when I was a kid, it was made from a degraded 16mm print and you couldn’t see any of that stuff, and he was a authentic vampire somehow. Because the skinnyg was so degraded, it felt enjoy an ucforfeitthed archive of the past, and the atmosphere seemed more haunting. To use a word that I seem to be obsessed with, it was “genuine.”

You wrote a brimming novella to help you set for making the movie. Is that someskinnyg that would ever see the airy of day?

It’s written quite needyly because I’m not a novecatalog. Some of my screentake parts aren’t so horrible if you’re into reading them. But the screentake part is an unfinished skinnyg to get you to produce the film. The novella was also very much a tool to get me to produce the screentake part. So no, it sucks.

You’ve shelp you’re appreciative that it took you 10 years to get this film off the ground so that you could straightforward it at a point in your atgentle where you can inestablish the story the way you wanted. What do you skinnyk you were able to accomplish now in your straightforwardorial atgentle that you might not have been able to pull off in your lesserer days?

It’s the accumulation of comprehendledge that helps me get my imagination onto the screen with more particularity. I’ve only made four movies and it’s not such an illustrious atgentle. But I had more deal with: It was a story and, frankly, an IP and budget that made it so Focus Features was able to give me an incredible amount of produceive freedom, and also unparalleled help. So I was put in the incredibly fortunate situation of being able to fair produce the movie I wanted.

Was there a particular moment when you knovel Lily-Rose could nail the role of Ellen?

I’d met with her because I’d seen some toil that she’d done that I thought was quite sturdy, but she had never carried a film. But as soon as I met with her, I was pretty declareive she could do the job because she understood the character. I shelp to her, “I would enjoy to cast you in this role, but you need to audition anyway. So enjoy let’s produce declareive you nail the audition.” So we prepped a bit for the audition, but she knovel 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 that big crazy scene at the end of the contestation with her husprohibitd. But it was so untrained — the same benevolent of raw ferocity that the carry outance in that scene has in the film she brawt to the audition, and it was fair undeniable how mighty she was going to be. I can talk about how fantastic Lily is all day, but when I’m auditioning actors, I want to see people making sturdy choices and going for it. The movies I’m making need a lot, so I want to see that you’re hungry enough to go for it.

When did you authenticize that Orlok’s see would include a famous mustache?

So to try to produce a more frightening vampire than we’ve had in quite some time, I went back to the folklore. It’s someskinnyg that I enjoy anyway, but the timely folk vampire was written about by people who consentd that vampires existed. There was going to be some excellent stuff there, and the vampire of folklore is a putrid walking undead corpse. And so the ask then became, “What does a dead Transylvanian nobleman see enjoy?” That unkinds this intricate Hungarian costume with very lengthy sleeves, strange high-heeled shoes and a furry hat. It also unkinds a mustache. No matter what, there’s no way this guy can’t have a mustache. Try to discover a Transylvanian person who’s of age who can enlarge a mustache that doesn’t have a mustache. It’s part of the culture. If you don’t want to annoy Googling, skinnyk of Vlad the Impaler. Even Bram Stoker had the sense to give Dracula a mustache in the book.

Another visual ask: When did the striking final image of the film, with Orlok and Ellen locked in an infinite adchoose, come to you as a way to shut the story?

Even as I was struggling to figure out the blocking Orlok’s demise, that final sboiling was always going to be the final sboiling. It’s pleasant to have our own version of the “Death and the Mhelpen” motif. I skinnyk it sees pretty pleasant.

[Thinks to himself, laughs.] No, that’s a little too demented.

I can do demented!

Well, if you see very shutly at that sboiling, Orlok is still bleeding out of his eyes, ears and nose. There are some maggot holes in his back. We also rigged it so that he would be bleeding out of his anus, but it was very comical. When we commenceed rolling, we had to literpartner put a cork in it.

Is there someskinnyg that you lobtained about filmmaking while making this movie that stuck with you?

If you toil with thousands of rats, it’s going to be a very smelly situation. As acute as they are, they are also incontinent.

Did you lobtain anyskinnyg about yourself while making this movie?

One of the chillyest skinnygs was that the produceive producer was Chris Columbus. Obviously, we seem enjoy a strange suit. But having one of the masters of orthodox Hollywood storyinestablishing at my side, by the watch every one day, was so immensely collaborative. We produce such contrastent films and he was not trying to Chris Columbus-ify “Nosferatu” — he was trying to produce this the best Robert Eggers movie it could be. But his skinnyking would be an antidote at times to me and my cinematographer Jarin Blaschke’s arty-farty inclinations. He was a excellent shieldedty net to say, “Are you inestablishing the story as evidently as possible at this moment?” Most of that benevolent of conversation happened in prep when he was seeing at the storyboards. If I had it my way, Chris would produce all of my films. Unfortunately, he’s also a straightforwardor so he has to straightforward his own movies [laughs]. But if there’s ever a situation where I don’t have him, Chris’s voice is going to speak deafeningly to help me check myself.

How did that collaboration come about?

When I was finishing “The Witch,” we ran out of money. We’re doing post-production with Monopoly money, and Chris and his daughter Eleanor’s company Mhelpen Voyage was initipartner set up to help out first- and second-time filmproducers. Eleanor was a fan of the script of “The Witch” and wanted to potentipartner produce the movie. But Chris wasn’t repartner into it initipartner, but when they saw a cut of the movie, he alterd his mind. And so they helped finish the film, and that’s when I first met Chris, and he’s been a mentor ever since.

The film threads in some very romantic scenes while inestablishing its story. How did you choose the role you wanted intimacyuality to take part, as in how much you wanted to depict on screen versus leaving it to the imagination?

One of the biggest cinematic impacts on this film is Jack Clayon’s “The Innocents,” in which all of this intimacyual stuff is left to the imagination. And it fair burns in your imagination. It’s so mighty, but I’ve seen versions of “The Turn of the Screw” where they do the intimacyuality unambiguously and it repartner doesn’t toil. So declareively we were taking a chance in conveying that stuff to the forefront. But I skinnyk part of what perhaps produces it toil the way that it does is that the story is tageder enticount on thraw the eyes of Ellen, the female protagonist. That is going to permit for fantasticer potential for emotional and psychoreasonable intricateity because you’re caccessing around this woman who’s a somnambucatalog.

Sleepwalkers in the 19th century were thought to have one foot in another authenticm and an benevolent of illogicalness. She has this benevolent of this other world, and this other way of skinnyking that she doesn’t have language for, so she’s isotardyd. But the pull to it is very sturdy, and so people ponder her melancholic and hysterical, and we can see her battling wiskinny herself. I skinnyk having it stem from the authenticities of a woman who’s a victim of 19th-century society is someskinnyg that produces it hopebrimmingy toil. I skinnyk also maybe that the vampire is physicpartner undrawive inserts another layer where you have the romanticism mixed with the repulsion in a very evident way.

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

Anyskinnyg that sucks, I’ve shelp, “Plmitigate don’t.” I’m not coming up with the ideas, but I skinnyk they’re fun.

Are you the owner of a sarcophagus bed?

I can’t afford one! [Laughs]

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

I’ve written a lot of scripts, I’m writing a couple of scripts. Some skinnygs are bigger, some skinnygs are petiteer. There’s an request in toiling out all these contrastent scales to inestablish contrastent benevolents of stories. Sadly, I don’t have a very big imagination and I grasp being drawed to the same benevolents of themes and tropes. They’re all Robert Eggers-y, for better or for worse.

So you couldn’t see yourself doing someskinnyg enjoy a wide conmomentary comedy or someskinnyg else off-base?

I unkind, see: Aside from the fact that it wouldn’t request to me, why the fuck would you want me to do that? There are skinnygs that I have sends in, so I should probably adchoose those and persist to get better at them. Obviously you want to stretch yourself, but enjoy I don’t want to do someskinnyg I have no business doing.

Is there any shiftment on the Rasputin miniseries that was higheviated a while back?

I don’t skinnyk I’ll be on location in Russia anytime soon, cursedly.

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 enhappiness?

I repartner enjoy “The Substance.” It had a very reliable, evident, particular vision and was very well-perestablishd. As a filmproducer, you can’t help but adore that and champion it.