Bill Skarsgård is no stranger to physical transformation for a performance. After all, the Swedish actor is best known for playing Pennywise The Dancing Clown in IT and IT: Chapter Two , which was a character that required an intense amount of makeup and prosthetics to bring to life. In the upcoming horror movie Nosferatu , he is back at it again playing the grotesque vampire Count Orlok – but even with his previous experiences under his belt, he was still apparently put back on his heels when writer/director Robert Eggers first presented what he had in mind for the new incarnation of the iconic monster.
Eggers spoke about the actor’s initial reaction to the character design earlier this month during a post-screening Q&A with Guillermo del Toro in Los Angeles (the same screening that yielded the first public reactions to Nosferatu ). While discussing his approach to bringing the iconic character to life, the filmmaker talked about working with prosthetic makeup FX designer David White and how Bill Skarsgård was taken aback when he first saw what was being ideated. Said Eggers, David [White] is so talented; it was so much fun to work on.
But then when Bill [Skarsgård] first saw the bust, he was like, 'This guy didn't look like me when he was alive,' and he was pretty intimidated. But as soon as he put it on, I saw the moment when he was like inspired by the makeup and knew that he could do something with it. Having seen the film, I can tell you that Bill Skarsgård .
