Before ‘Nosferatu,’ Robert Eggers Recalls Almost Getting Willem Dafoe Set on Fire

This week, the world finally gets to meet “Nosferatu” … again.

Writer/director Robert Eggers’ vampire adventure is an adaptation of the 1922 silent movie classic, itself a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” with a starry cast that includes Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney and Willem Dafoe.

It follows many of the same beats as “Dracula,” with Eggers’ typical attention to historical detail and sumptuous camerawork (from the filmmaker’s regular cinematographer Jarin Blaschke).

TheWrap sat down with Eggers and Dafoe about their latest adventure on “Nosferatu,” which marks their third collaboration after 2019’s “The Lighthouse” and 2022’s “The Northman.” Learn about their approach to the material, what made this version of the character new and whether or not they’ll continue their collaboration.

Let’s go back to your first collaboration – “The Lighthouse.” Was there a sense that this would be the beginning of a lengthy partnership?

Willem Dafoe: One at a time, but we had plenty to do there, you know, you don’t think beyond that. Do this to get that, you don’t think beyond that when your plate is full. It was full-on. But I thought that this guy’s the full package. I mean, besides seeing “The Witch,” you get this beautiful script, you get this beautiful set to work in and the shots are constructed so beautifully. That’s a very rich place to be as an actor.

Robert Eggers: Why wouldn’t you want to continue to work with one of the greatest actors of all time?

Willem, how does that make you feel?

Dafoe: You heard him. I want to try to be that guy that he thinks I am. But it’s a mutual respect and he inspires me terrifically. And not just his way of working and what he does, but his character, where creating this stuff fits into his life. It’s pretty extraordinary.

And then you reteamed for “The Northman.”

Eggers: Yeah, but …

Dafoe: I’m not seven-feet-tall and 350 pounds, so not very castable.

Eggers: But yeah, it was very nice, very fun. Jared [Manley] almost set Willem on fire. But other than that, fairly uneventful. I remember when you left, you were like, “Well, it’s been a joy, but good luck, motherf–ker.”

Dafoe: I was just jealous. I wanted to stick around and do some of that violence and some of that other stuff.

Robert, you’ve been thinking about “Nosferatu” for a long time. When did you start thinking about Willem for this role?

Eggers: It’s such a great role for him. As you are aware, I did this version in high school, and it’s kind of crazy, because the guy who played Willem’s part was my friend Clark, who is similarly very angular. And he was obsessed with “Platoon,” you were his favorite actor by far. And actually the friend of mine who played the Nicholas Hoult role texted me the other day, and he was like, “I know Willem Dafoe is just doing a Clark Stevens impression.”

When did he approach you about “Nosferatu?”

Dafoe: He didn’t approach me specifically, but I remember when he was starting to think about doing it 10 years ago, and that was after we had our meeting about “The Witch.” He wasn’t proposing anything to me, but I always mark that in my head. I know exactly where I was. I was in a car someplace, I was traveling, and I remember talking to him on the phone and saying he was trying to do this thing. That started it, but no specific conversation. And then after “The Northman,” I’m always like, “Hey, well, what’s next? Do you have something for me?” Wow. And he said, “Yep, I do. And it’s pretty good.”

So many people have played this character before, did you look at any of those other performances?

Dafoe: I didn’t feel the need. The writing’s strong. This isn’t really quite a remake, it’s personal.

Eggers: I can see if you’re playing, like, MacBeth or Hamlet, wanting to rewatch some of the things, because you’re literally saying the same lines. I don’t want to accidentally be making the same choices. But this is a different Van Helsing. There’s no reason to do that.

What was your way in to creating a new take on the character?

Eggers: In the Murnau film, the Van Helsing character is called Bulwer and he doesn’t really do much of anything. And Bulwer sounds bad in English, so I gave a different name – Von Franz. Most of the other names were very closely related to the names in Stoker. So I did the same. And also Marie Louise von Franz is a prominent Jungian I like. Basically, Bulwer is described as being a follower of Paracelsus, who is a Swiss occultist, physician. Then I thought, Swiss? He’s a proto-Jungian. Interesting. There is a lot to play with. And I also felt that, like Van Helsing in the novel is both stuffy and wholesome, and so I wanted him to be neither stuffy nor wholesome.

Dafoe: Also, this character is much more deeply into the occult than any of those characters that I can think of. It’s a different character and he’s outside of society. It’s kind of beautiful when they ask for him to come to help sort things out, but they’re really suspicious of him, and when he makes his case, they’re not buying it. But because it’s told from Ellen’s point of view, it’s nice that he is the only one that sees Ellen. There are these beautiful scenes where he almost encourages her on a path which is a whole other dimension. Because then you get into the whole thinking of, it’s all about beyond bodily death. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, right? Maybe this obsession, this passion, you’ve got the husband that loves her but doesn’t see her. And then you have this toxic monster that he’s into and she’s into him. I mean, this is interesting stuff.

Eggers: As he says, “God is beyond our morals.”

Robert, I’ve heard you say that many of the decisions you make are dictated purely by historical accuracy. For Willem, how does that play into your characterization?

Dafoe: It’s fantastic. because you’ve got to know what these things are. You learn something and then that becomes specific. This role is not about an interpretation. It’s about inhabiting always. And what makes you inhabit, what gives you the authority to pretend, to step into this role, you start to get information, you start to learn things, and that then you have a change of your idea, and that really opens the door for you to walk into that character and you feel good in it, because you’re having an experience. If the research really touches you, if it really engages you, then you take that engagement and you apply it to the actions and that’s a beautiful place to be.

Can you talk about the backstory you wrote and how that informed Willem’s character?

Eggers: I wrote a novella when I was trying to write the first draft of the script, because obviously, this story has been done so many times, and I needed to take ownership of it and so I was able to expand on the characters and their backstories and learn a lot about them and write scenes that I knew deliberately would not be in the film to further explore this stuff. Because people often say it must be very difficult to do this story that’s been told so many times. And yes, but there are some benefits too, where you see what always works, what sometimes works, what’s always missing, what never works and so on. And one of the things was, was fleshing out the secondary and tertiary characters, but I didn’t share that with Willem.

Dafoe: I had plenty to work on.

You didn’t get access to this novella?

Dafoe: I heard about it, but if he didn’t want to give it to me, I was OK. And as I said, I had plenty to work with. Also, sometimes that’s confusing. It’s coming from him and he’s the director, but it’s like sometimes when something’s based on a novel or something, I’m tempted not to read the novel if the adaptation is different, because you have loyalty to the source material, and you’re always veering toward that, and there’s a tendency to want to pay it off or point to it and that’s the last place you should be.

Eggers: Different actors need different things. I know what Willem needs. And I knew that some people needed a more complete backstory for the kind of work that they do to get into the character. But Willem needed more like, “What’s in front of me? What does this guy know? What does he know that I’m talking about in the movie that I need to amplify my knowledge around that, because I’m going to have to seem like I’m actually an expert on it?” That I need to know, but I don’t need to know like, Von Franz was raised in the hills outside Geneva, he sprained his ankle when he was 12 years old, chasing a lamb.

Dafoe: Because then you get seduced into trying to pay all of that stuff off. You aren’t in the scene and you aren’t doing what’s in the frame. You’re pointing to something else. I think that’s dangerous.

Eggers: Someone was telling me that they were working with an actor and they needed to walk down a staircase, and they’re taking forever walking down the staircase, and they’re like, “What’s going on?” [The actor said] “I thought that my character had vertigo that they were dealing with since childhood.” And he’s like, “Interesting choice. But can you please walk down the stairs?”

Is this a collaboration that you both see continuing?

Dafoe: I hope so. Do you hear that Robert?

Eggers: I keep offering Willem roles all the time. Let’s just hope the next one gets made.

How modern do you think you will get, in terms of the setting for one of your movies?

Eggers: The serious answer is, I don’t know. Maybe I would do something in the in the ‘50s, but before World War II is generally more interesting to me for me for whatever reason. It’s just further away from modernity. And certainly, a contemporary movie would suck because I’d have to photograph cars and sell cell phones.

As long as it still has the hallmarks of a Robert Eggers movie – the occult, mysticism, murder…

Eggers: Yes, people tend to die naked and screaming at the end of my movies.

“Nosferatu” is in theaters on Christmas Day.

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