Bill Skarsgård’s ‘Nosferatu’ Transformation: Six Hours of Makeup, a 62-Piece Prosthetic, a Bushy Mustache and More Count Orlok Secrets Revealed

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains mild spoilers about “Nosferatu,” now playing in theaters.

Robert Eggers’ horror film “Nosferatu” has been getting high praise for its craft, from the costumes to the cityscapes, boats and carriages. Yet Bill Skarsgård‘s transformation into the horrific Count Orlok has been the biggest topic of conversation.

David White, the prosthetic makeup effects designer on “Nosferatu,” spilled the secrets behind Skarsgård’s look, as well as the inspirations that haunted him and a breakdown of the film’s indelible final image. Although Focus Features is still hiding full images of Count Orlok, White, traveling internationally while working on his next project, emailed answers to Variety about our biggest questions.

How long did it take to develop the look for Count Orlok?

I had been in discussion with Robert for nearly a year beforehand. I had a life cast of Bill at home and slowly worked on a rough, sculptural guide track which would set the tone for the extent of the prosthetics and the depths of material, which he would be wearing in the final look. Also, I was able to explore the most important elements, being his age, his power and allure, his nobility and the extent of his decay and rot.

I then assembled a crew, and with my key sculptor, Colin Jackman, continued working on the look. This process expanded into a workshop for the next three to four months, when we began to pull all the elements together and move into testing the makeup on Bill. Once approved, we produced the many prosthetic duplicates for the shoot. I must say I was fortunate to have a brilliant workshop crew and an amazing on-set team, most of whom had worked with me for years, so they knew what they were letting themselves in for, as our dedication and passion would be essential. 

What looks inspired you?

When I was a kid in the library, rooting through the horror section, I came across a book. I opened it to a full-page, black-and-white still of Max Schreck as Nosferatu. This image was so striking it was burned into my psyche to this day. I’m also fascinated by natural history and creatures that dwell in darkness their entire lives. Most are mute of tone, ghostly and compelled by nothing but seeking sustenance.

When we started production, Robert sent me a photo of a dark and mysterious painting of the character that he had done a few years before. Although in shadow, it had a great head shape and ashen skin tone, which really gave me a feel of the vibe Robert was after. From then, I was really up and running on a three-dimensional interpretation.

How did you want to echo other “Nosferatu” looks while developing something new and fresh? 

It was always going to be new and fresh because we had Bill Skarsgård to work with. Bill has a great bone structure and wonderful expressive eyes, and is such a great actor. There are echoes of the original Max Schreck version in the look, but only fleeting echoes. I feel our Orlok gives a much deeper, more visual interpretation, and is definitely standalone.

How long was Bill Skarsgård in the makeup chair each day to put on the look? To take it off?

Bill’s time in the chair varied, from four and a half hours with just the head and hands, to six hours if he was in full body prosthetics. Prosthetic removal was approximately 45 minutes.

What was the most challenging part to develop?

I would say the most challenging part to develop was the fact that his prosthetic makeup had to work on so many levels, and with only one sculptural look. I had to find interesting ways to meet all the criteria.

I was keen to keep his age ambiguous — ageless, so to speak. I did this by being very particular about the amount of wrinkles and obvious character lines, keeping the look more sparse with no hoods over his eyelids and no eye bags. He also has to be appealing and charismatic to Ellen and able to disguise his filthy rot and decay by keeping in the shadows as cover. His coloration was also challenging. I devised two very different looks: one when he is in his Sarcophagus — when his “trance State” coloration is puce with bruised red blemishes and dark tones — and the other being his “day look,” which was waxen and sallow.

What was the discussion about him having a mustache like?

Robert’s passion for the traditions of the time greatly influenced the final look. As Orlok was of noble stature, Robert really wanted him to have a mustache and forelock. I think this approach was totally correct and I never saw it any other way after that. When you remove these elements, he just doesn’t look like Orlok.

How many prosthetic pieces did you use and what were they?

Orlok has nine prosthetics for his head and face alone: a neck, back of head, chin, cheeks, bottom and top lip, ears, nose, forehead and nose bridge. 

He also has top and bottom hand prosthetics, with eight finger extensions incorporating nails, and two thumbs, each with a blender prosthetic to disguise the edges.

For Orlok’s full-body prosthetic, there are a phenomenal 62 prosthetic pieces that take a team of six to apply.

How did you transform his eyes?

Bill uses his own eyes without lenses for the “day look,” which gives him great freedom of expression. For his “trance State,” he has full scleral contact lenses, which transform his eyes to a white milky dead stare.

How did you land on the look for his nails and hands?

Robert was keen to have Bill’s fingers elongated as much as possible before becoming unusable from a practical standpoint. Bill had to be able to write, open boxes and manipulate objects, so I extended his fingers as far as possible, taking into account that beyond the finger was an equally long gnarly, broken nail. Robert was keen they should be slightly arthritic also. This all took a lot of testing, as the material the finger extensions are made from had to be firm enough for Bill to feel the vibrations through, giving him more sensitivity.

Could you break down the final shot, when Orlok is dead on top of Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), and how you achieved that look? What conversations did you have with Robert about that?

The scene plays out as the sun breaks across the room and falls on Orlok. Robert wanted to be able to cut from the painful screams of Orlok to the final shot of him lying dead on Ellen, when he’s nothing more than a husk.

I shared with Robert versions of bodies in varying states of decay and wither. He really wanted the feeling of Orlok having had all life sucked from him, every last drop of blood. We took our final inspiration from a reference photo of a rediscovered body of a 5,300-year-old iceman found in the Alps. 

When I had completed this, it was shot within the scene and VFX, then scanned the corpse and also scanned Bill in this final look. VFX then enhanced the painful withering moment between the two looks to complete the scene.