The actor stars in Robert Eggers’ upcoming gothic horror flick
Bill Skarsgård has made a chilling admission about his upcoming horror film, revealing that he will never play a role ‘this evil’ again.
The Swedish actor, 34, is no stranger to playing a villainous role, having appeared as malevolent killer clown Pennywise in recent adaptations of Stephen King’s It.
However Skarsgård has now admitted that his role in Robert Eggers’ remake of gothic classic Nosferatu left him feeling so creeped out that he’s now sworn off playing villainous roles.
Set to premiere on Christmas Day in the US before hitting UK cinemas on 1 January, Nosferatu has a controversial history as an unauthorised adaptation of Dracula, which was nearly lost forever after lawsuit with Bram Stroker’s widow.
Nevertheless, the 1922 original survived and is now getting a modern revamp, with Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe and Emma Corrin starring alongside Skarsgård.
Set in Germany, the film follows the story of a young woman named Ellen Hutter (Depp) who is being stalked by an ancient vampire named Count Orlok (Skarsgård), with Orlok’s twisted obsession leading to untold horror.
As the trailer suggests, fans will be in for a seriously pretty creepy time once they sit down in the cinema, but it seems like the Nosferatu’s chilling subject matter also had an impact on its cast as well.
Bill Skarsgård plays the film’s villain Count Orlok (Andrew Toth/WireImage)
Speaking about his time in the role of Count Orlok in a recent interview with Empire, Skarsgård admitted that he was relieved to finish shooting on the film.
“When we were done with it, I was like, ‘I never want to play something this evil again. I never want to put on prosthetics again’.” he explained.
Getting into the role of the Count required Skarsgård to not only wear prosthetics, but also work with an opera singer to lower his voice a whole octave, something which he compared to ‘Mongolian throat-singing’.
“The voice was the thing I worked the hardest at,” he said. “For a month-and-a-half leading up to the shoot, I didn’t do much else than just record myself. And on set, I would keep doing these exercises.”
Going on to explain why it was a ‘relief’ to wrap filming for Nosferatu, he continued: “It really affected me. Orlok is an occult sorcerer, and it did a number on me in terms of just trying to inhabit that space.”
Skarsgård isn’t the only Nosferatu actor to reflect on the horrifying nature of the film, with Deadpool & Wolverine actor Emma Corrin calling the film ‘breath stopping’.
“It’s very scary,” they revealed in a recent interview.
“It is like: ‘breath-stopping, please can I be anywhere but in the cinema’ scary. But, you know, it’s in a way that only Robert Eggers could do.
“He’s a genius and all of it is pristine and beautiful and detailed and nuanced.”
