One of the most secret things about Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu-a reimagining of the silent film that famously lifted its plot Dracula-that’s what Count Orlok would look like. Before the film opened in theaters, marketing materials showed the vampire played by Bill Skarsgård only in silhouette or shadow. This was put in the discussion of how the character will appear on the screen in a scary way, but now that the film is out, the audience is also aware of the surprising choice of make-up.
Obviously… it’s that mustache!
In a spoiler-y interview with Variety, Eggers was asked why Count Orlok has such unique facial hair. As is often the case with this writer-director, it started when he did extensive research before production.
“To try to make a vampire that’s scarier than what we’ve had in a long time, I went back to the mythology,” he told the trade. “It’s something I like anyway, but the classic vampire was written by people who believed vampires existed. There would be good things there, and the vampire of fiction is a dirty, walking undead corpse.”
That led to, he explained, wondering “What does a respectable Transylvanian man look like?”
From there, Eggers said, he thought it meant “this elaborate Hungarian costume with very long sleeves, weird high-heeled shoes and a fur hat. It also means a mustache. No matter what, there’s no way this guy can’t have a mustache. Try to find an elderly Transylvanian who can grow a mustache without a mustache. It’s part of the culture. If you don’t want to bother Googling, consider Vlad the Impaler. Even Bram Stoker had the idea to give Dracula a mustache in the book.”
So there you have it: a culturally appropriate choice—as you can see, the rest of the film’s cast, including Prof. Willem Dafoe’s Von Franz, also rocks ‘staches—and it’s one Stoker himself considered while working on the 1897 novel. that started it all.
Nosferatu it’s in theaters now.
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