While he has shocked and terrified as Pennywise the Clown in the ‘It’ movies, Bill Skarsgard “never been more scared in playing a character” than Count Orlok in ‘Nosferatu’.
Bill Skarsgard has “never been more scared in playing a character” than Count Orlok in ‘Nosferatu’.
While the 34-year-old actor has portrayed the terrifying Pennywise the Clown in the two ‘It’ movies, Skarsgard has insisted his vampire in the 2025 horror flick is far more frightening to him.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said: “I’ve done this sort of transformative performance before, but none quite like this.
“I’ve never been more scared in playing a character than playing Orlok.”
Skarsgard’s co-star Nicholas Hoult added being around the actor while he is the vampire is “so intimidating”.
He said: “It’s something that is so intimidating and fully realised and horrific that is incredible to see, and also terrifying to also be around.”
For the role, Skarsgard worked with an opera singer to achieve the low, menacing voice director Robert Eggers wanted Orlok to have.
The filmmaker praised Skarsgard for his performance as Orlok, and explained he didn’t force the actor to go full method on the film because playing the vampire was “very exhausting”.
The filmmaker said: “The amount of stamina and the amount of energy that it takes to, like, lower your voice and be this supernatural creature that’s incapable of imperfection is very exhausting.
“So, I wouldn’t insist Bill to be method and stay in character. Sometimes, he needed to lighten the mood, and he was able to do that and still go back into the darkness.”
‘Nosferatu’ – which also stars Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin and Aaron-Taylor Johnson – follows a young woman who finds herself the target of the ancient Transylvanian vampire Count Orlok after the creature becomes infatuated by her.
Skarsgard previously detailed how he found the right pitch for Orlok’s voice in an effort to make the character’s vocals sound “inhumanely deep”.
Speaking at a Q+A with cast members in New York City last month, the ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ star said: “The voice was something that I knew he wanted it inhumanely deep, and I don’t think my normal voice is very deep, so it was, ‘OK, how can I access a depth that I didn’t know I had in me?’
“That was a wonderful exploration and working with an opera singer trying to lower the voice as deep as possible and trying to be relaxed as possible as I could and I explored with it and I worked on it so much that I’ve built out this little routine for myself that I knew that, ‘OK, my voice is great when I’m really relaxed.’
“So I used this 20-minute routine that I would do to be in the place where the voice was resonating and coming from me as opposed to feeling like I was putting on the voice.”
While Skarsgard is satisfied with his work on ‘Nosferatu’, the actor admitted he was relieved to “let go of the chains” of Orlok.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “Wrapping the movie was a relief.
“Everything that he represents is so intense, I was happy to let go of the chains he had on me.”
Nosferatu’s Bill Skarsgard ‘never been more scared playing a character’ than Count Orlok
