Marketers for the vampire thriller Nosferatu have kept images of Bill Skarsgård's Count Orlok under wraps -- until now.
Released in theaters on Dec. 25, 2024, Nosferatu quickly went on to become a worldwide hit in theaters. Per The Numbers, the film has earned $82.6 million domestically and $53.5 million internationally for a worldwide box office tally of $136.1 million to date. According to Deadline, Nosferatu's production budget was $50 million before prints and advertising.
Prior to this week, Nosferatu's studio Focus Features has kept the look of Count Orlok out of all of its marketing materials -- dating back to the release of the film's teaser trailer six months ago and its official trailer three months later.
In addition, the film's press kit -- which currently contains 51 images -- has avoided showing any clear images of Count Orlok, apart from heavily obscured shadowy shots of the character or silhouettes.
Featured among the images instead are the filmmakers including writer-director Robert Eggers and producer Chris Columbus, as well as the cast including Hoult, Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Simon McBurney, Ralph Ineson and Willem Dafoe.
Focus Features finally let the cat -- make that bat -- out of the bag on Monday, though, when the studio posted a 1-minute, 7-second video featurette on Count Orlok on its official Nosferatu X account.
In the video, Skarsgård discusses how he became the classic character -- first depicted by Max Shreck in F.W. Murnau's 1922 classic original -- for Eggers' remake.
Spoiler warning: Various shots of Count Orlok in 'Nosferatu' are featured in the video below.
Bill Skarsgård, of course, is no stranger to playing frightening characters, having starred as Pennywise the Clown in the two-film, big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's It in 2017 and 2019.
Still, Skarsgård said in the video featurette, "I've never been more scared in playing a character."
"I've done these sorts of performances before but none quite like this," Skarsgård added. "I felt like I could become this vessel of evil playing Orlok. He's the pinnacle of horror characters."
The video shows Skarsgård as Orlok from various angles either in shots from the film or from behind-the-scenes footage.
In addition to not revealing images of Count Orlok until Monday, Focus Features was careful not to release any snippets of the character's voice. Skarsgård said performing voice for Count Orlok "was the biggest challenge."
"Bill started working on the voice and was sending me recordings and I would say, 'A little more of this and a little less of that,'" writer-director Robert Eggers told me in a Zoom conversation prior to the release of the film. "Eventually, I hooked him up with a friend of mine who's an opera singer to help lower his voice in octave, and give it like, the most power that it can by going as deep as possible."
Asked in the featurette how his cast mates reacted to his transformation into Count Orlok, Skarsgård responded, "I think it's a better question for them. I think it was something like, 'Oh, s -- t!"
