February 5, 2025

FILMHOUNDS Magazine

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“As the makeup started going on, he began to change” – Nosferatu’s Prosthetic Makeup Effects Designer David White On Crafting Count Orlok

Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter in Nosferatu. She is staring at the camera while bleeding from her eyes and mouth.

Image: © Focus Features

Nosferatu arrived in UK cinemas at the start of this month, kicking off the 2025 calendar in sumptuous, gothic fashion. Director Robert Eggers' reboot of F. W. Murnau's silent classic has been more than 10 years in the making, following his resounding successes with The Witch (2015), The Lighthouse (2019), and The Northman (2022). His reimagining shifts focus to Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) as the protagonist, who finds herself preyed upon by the mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) through her dreams. When Ellen's husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) facilitates a property deal for the Count, he travels to their small German town in a forceful bid to claim Ellen as his own.

Orlok's unique appearance from Murnau's original film was completely overhauled for 2025, with his new look kept hidden from Nosferatu's marketing leaving the big reveal for those who choose to watch it. One of the minds behind his distinct experience is prosthetic makeup effects designer David White, who spoke to FILMHOUNDS about the inspirations behind Orlok's design, intricate details of the costume, and Skarsgård's transformation into the character.

You worked with on The Northman, when did he approach you about working on ?

It was about six months after The Northman came out. We had conversations, and then things went very quiet for a while. It was really good to have that conversation, because it just let things simmer for the whole project, and it gave us that time to orchestrate what was going on and then bring forward ideas. It was a while before we got the green light.

Was Count Orlok's look something that you worked on together, or was it something Robert came to you with?

Robert put together these mood boards after we discussed the character. We asked “Who's he going to be?” and answered, “He's going to be tall, he's going to be noble-looking, and he's going to have this strength and sort of strange vitality to him, even though he's dead.” We began to establish the boundaries of what he was going to be. And then Robert put a board together which showed me illustrations of 17th-century noblemen and Cossack-inspired images. Then I put a few images together, such as autopsy stuff that they used to do, sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, and skeletons with muscles attached. There are also all sorts of wonderful folk illustrations out there. We went through all this together and pinpointed certain elements that work for us both. But Robert's the driving force, he's the one with the vision. But when we got hold of Bill, things changed, because any actor brings their own ideas. So it's quite a strange journey.

It's a very different approach to the classic vampire in that he is rotting before our eyes. How did you develop that idea?

I did a sculpt initially for my people to work from, which was to understand how much material we were going to put on the head and the face. When creating [Orlok], I thought more about who he was before he turned, then we could take him down and grunge him up, as they say, into that level of decay and rot. Robert was very keen to have decay and rot on the back of his head, and on his underside as a whole, because he's lying in a sarcophagus all the time. It's only natural you start to peel away in this tank with rats and stuff. It felt natural to do that. Then it was a question of, how far forward do you come with that rot before he turns into a ghoul or zombie? So it was a delicate balance, but it was very organic the way we worked.

I've seen a lot of interviews with the cast about their reactions to first seeing Bill Skarsgård in the costume. What was it like for you first seeing him as Orlok?

I have a studio Shepherd's Bush and we had Bill in for the first makeup test, which Robert flew over for. Making Bill up and seeing him transform slowly into this character, piece by piece, was the bit I liked the best. Bill's a very cheery kind of guy, he's very smiley and charming. As the makeup started going on, he began to change. He was getting more serious as he was testing himself and seeing what he could get out of it. He would move to the mirror and three-quarter check, and see how he could manipulate the hands. It was playtime in a way for him. It gave him that first opportunity to get into the character. And then Robert comes in, and it's all quiet, It was a wonderful moment because Robert had this on his mind for so long, and then suddenly it's there in front of him.

Are there any details about the design that you've not seen people discussing?

I haven't heard much about the fact Count Orlok hasn't got eyebrows. If you look at the Max Shreck version [of Orlok], he's got enormous, bushy eyebrows. I think from Robert's perspective, that was a way to define him as an individual. I never actually thought of him with eyebrows, because I always liked the idea of it being slightly unworldly, not of this planet in a strange way. When you look at this, there is just something not quite right, but you don't know what it is. When you haven't framed the eyes, and you allow it to breathe the space, it's kind of intriguing and a bit spooky, you know, like The Man Who Fell to Earth. Especially with the big, bushy moustache as well. There's something very unusual.

Nosferatu is available to buy or rent on digital platforms from 3rd February 2025.