Actress Lily-Rose Depp felt empowered as the heart of vampire horror Nosferatu

LOS ANGELES – In the latest retelling of the Count Dracula story, it is the young woman pursued by the vampire who becomes the protagonist.

Now showing in Singapore cinemas, the horror film Nosferatu follows Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a young man tasked with selling a crumbling Transylvanian manor to the reclusive Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard).

But as the vampiric count becomes infatuated with Hutter’s new bride Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), she starts being plagued by visions that lead to a dark and complex relationship.

The movie – which was up for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Make-up and Hairstyling at the Oscars on March 2 – is written and directed by American film-maker Robert Eggers, who made the acclaimed horror films The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019).

At Nosferatu’s Los Angeles premiere in late 2024, Depp, 25, says Eggers had a different take on Irish author Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the 1897 Gothic horror novel that established the quintessential vampire archetype.

And Eggers set out to reimagine the landmark silent film that the book inspired, German director F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror (1922), in which a vampire named Count Orlok preys on his estate agent’s wife.

Depp – the daughter of American actor Johnny Depp and French actress-singer Vanessa Paradis – says what appealed to her about the new version is that the vampire’s female target is the core of the story.

“Of course, this is a story we are familiar with, but this is really a fresh take that is very different from any other iteration.

“Rob made the deliberate choice to make Ellen’s perspective the central one, and we see the story unfold through her eyes, which I think is such a beautiful thing,” says the actress, who played a pop star in the drama series The Idol (2023).

“And I found the character so incredibly empowering. I feel like there’s so much strength to her and she has so much agency in the story. She kind of calls the shots in a very cool way,” adds Lily-Rose Depp.

Eggers says making Ellen the heart of the narrative adds a new dimension.

“The Murnau film, which I love dearly, becomes Ellen’s story by the final act, when she becomes the heroine,” says the 41-year-old, who also helmed the period action drama The Northman (2022).

“But this is with her from the very beginning, which I was hopeful would create more emotional and psychological depth.”

The cast says Eggers has been obsessed with the Nosferatu story since he was a child, and had been working on the screenplay for a decade, with a very clear vision of what the movie would be.

Adds Swedish actor Skarsgard, who played murderous clown Pennywise in the horror film series It (2017 and 2019): “Eggers has been marinating this story ever since he was a little boy, and I read this script the first time 10 years ago.”

And Eggers had plotted out every detail. But the director still gave his actors plenty of creative freedom.

“When you have a director that specific and he goes, ‘I want you to work within this frame’, then it’s liberating to an extent because you go, ‘Okay, then what can I do within those parameters?’” Skarsgard, 34, says.

And Hoult – who starred in the historical comedy The Favourite (2018) and the X-Men superhero movies (2011 to 2019) – praises Skarsgard for being “so phenomenal” as Orlok.

The 35-year-old English actor says: “He transforms completely and it’s wonderful to be in scenes with him because it feels completely real and it makes my job very easy.”