For his role in «Nosferatu», Bill Skashgård wore 60 prosthetics

For Bill Skarsgård, heavy makeup is nothing new, considering his role as Pennywise in “It,” however, according to the stylists of “Nosferatu,” his look in Robert Eggers’ film required even more effort — just for the face makeup before each shoot, the actor spent over 4 hours in the chair, while about 60 prosthetics were planned for the character’s body overall.

“Bill is generally a warm and sweet person. And I remember, during the first makeup session, this charming guy gradually disappeared, and something else appeared in the room. In four hours, he transformed into a very dark character,” recalls prosthetics specialist David White in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

In Skarsgård’s case, great attention was paid to the eyes and “bone structure” — overall, the face makeup with 10 prosthetics (60 prosthetics on the body overall) took 4 hours. Sixteen people worked simultaneously on the overall character look, while Bill tried to distract himself with meditation during this time.

In most parts of the film, only the silhouette of Orlok, created by prosthetics specialist David White, is shown / Focus Features

At the release of the first trailer, many fans noted how different Orlok’s appearance (especially the hairstyle and hair) in Eggers’ vision was from the character in the original “Nosferatu” from 1922. White acknowledges that the character’s look was unusual, but it was thoroughly researched and planned by the director beforehand.

“Robert gave us illustrations of 16th-century nobility, and nearly all men had such mustaches. As for the hairstyle, Robert insisted that Orlok’s hair should be straight, somewhat tangled and dirty while in the sarcophagus, and a bit thicker and more elegant outside,”

10 prosthetics were used for the hands of Count Orlok / Focus Features

Similarly, makeup artists used special lighting to choose the right makeup technique considering the tinting of the film (the film was shot in color on 35mm, but was desaturated for the effect of an action taking place in a constant pale moonlight glow).

“I worked on ‘The Lighthouse’ and ‘The Witch,’ so I’m familiar with the lighting techniques used by cinematographer Jarin Blaschke,” says makeup artist Tracy Louder. “I have special lamps in my trailer, on which I apply paint to avoid mistakes. For a black-and-white film, we need to be careful with red and purple colors. There’s a lot of color theory here.”

Louder also worked in this way on the character of Lily-Rose Depp, Ellen, who was supposed to look somewhat sickly, considering she becomes possessed by a demon.

“We wanted to keep the realism of that era,” says Louder. “Robert really likes the no-makeup makeup look, and for Ellen at that time, such a requirement was justified.”

For Depp, four 'levels of paleness' were planned, which intensified as the plot progressed / Focus Features — For Depp, four ‘levels of paleness’ were planned, which intensified as the plot progressed / Focus Features

“Nosferatu” is being shown in theaters worldwide from December 25 (in Ukraine from January 2) and by this time has crossed the $135 million mark in box office earnings (with a budget of $50 million). The film has received quite high ratings from audiences, and critics have predicted it the title of ‘best in 2024’. Our review can be viewed via the link.

Besides Depp and Skarsgård, the main roles in “Nosferatu” are played by Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin, and Willem Dafoe — an actor who himself played Count Orlok (as well as actor Max Schreck) in the film “Shadow of the Vampire” from 2000.

For his role in «Nosferatu», Bill Skashgård wore 60 prosthetics — face and hand makeup alone took 4 hours