Bill Skarsgård's Mysterious Count Orlok Unveiled in New Look At Nosferatu

Cinema's most recent best-kept secret has been spilt, as Focus Features have released the first preview of Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok online following the film's theatrical release on Christmas Day.

Skarsgård speaks to becoming the infamous character on a featurette, saying, "It's the scariest performance of my career" and that he's "never been more scared in playing a character."

The actor is no stranger to making legendary cinematic characters his own, having played Pennywise in the 2017 reimagining of Stephen King's IT and, most recently, Eric in Rupert Sanders' reimaging of The Crow.

"I've done these sort of performances before, but none quite like this," Skarsgård says.

Nicholas Hoult stars as Thomas Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release. The image shows Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter opposite Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok. Courtesy of Focus Features

The featurette provides the most detailed public look at Skarsgård's Count Orlok, who has otherwise been kept a mystery in the media as part of Focus Features' marketing tactics to grow audience curiosity.

Focus has done a good job of still not giving too much away in the short video, keeping Orlok in silhouettes, but we get a better look at Skarsgård's physicality, most clear in the final shot where we see Orlok face-on, reaching from the shadows.

"I felt like I could become this vessel of evil," Skarsgård says, "[Orlok is] a pinnacle of horror characters."

The first person to play Orlok on screen was Max Schreck in F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent film Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens, which follows a similar narrative to Eggers' reimagining.

Joining Skarsgård in this latest adaptation are Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, and Simon McBurney.

Skarsgård is asked what his fellow castmates made of his transformation, to which he says, "I think it's a better question for them. I think it was something like 'Oh s**t'".

Nosferatu does not yet have a confirmed digital release date, so if you want a closer look at Skarsgård in action, you'll have to meet the Count in theaters while he's still there.