Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with Nosferatu’s Lily-Rose Depp and Emma Corrin.

Adapted and directed by Robert Eggers, Nosferatu is a fresh take on the horrifying tale of Count Orlok and his deadly infatuation with a young woman.

In this interview, Depp and Corrin discuss their on-set experience, the profound relationship between their characters, and Eggers’ method of crafting big screen horror.

In Robert Eggers’ take on Nosferatu, this classic horror is getting a revamp by centering the story around its heroine, Ellen Hutter, played by Lily-Rose Depp, and her experience as the menacing Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) seeks possession of her. The movie revisits the familiar tale of obsession and madness but with an emphasis on Depp’s Ellen, whose husband, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), has business with an unsettling Orlok himself.
For a project that’s been in the works for a decade now, audiences can’t wait for Eggers’ signature terror to unfold, with a stellar cast that also includes Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. To celebrate the upcoming premiere, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sat down with Depp and Corrin to discuss their experience bringing Eggers’ version of the story from script to screen.
During their conversation, which you can watch in the video above or read in transcript form below, the stars talk about sharing scenes and dive into the “profound” relationship between their characters, Ellen and Anna Harding. They also reflect on which scenes were the most challenging to film, reveal how Eggers helps craft the perfect terror on his sets, and more.
Lily-Rose Depp and Emma Corrin Are Holding Space

“You’re a dream.”

PERRI NEMIROFF: Can you each tell me something about the other as a scene partner that you really appreciated and maybe helped you reach something in your own character that you wouldn’t have been able to without them?
LILY-ROSE DEPP: Oh my god, cool question.
EMMA CORRIN: Whoa! Great question. New question.
DEPP: Emma’s just a dream scene partner in so many ways, truly. Not even just because you’re sitting right next to me. They’re so talented, and that always helps and is wonderful, but also, you’re so present and just so there. You know what I mean? We did a lot of things together that were really intense, and I think when you have somebody there who is just so there with you and that you really feel like you can rely on, it’s a huge gift. You’re a dream.
CORRIN: Oh my god, that’s so sweet. Yeah, exactly the same. I mean, you’re such a generous, incredible scene partner and so inspiring because, as you said, we had so many scenes where we did these long takes. There was so much physicality for you, and I watched you do that over and over, and it was kind of down to the rest of us to really… I was about to say, “Hold that space.”
DEPP: [Laughs] We can hold space, too!
We can do that! It’s everywhere. [Laughs]
CORRIN: It’s everywhere. Can’t get rid of it!
DEPP: It’s real. The space is real.
CORRIN: It was really inspiring and really moving. I felt very honored to be there firsthand and watching it.
Ellen and Anna Are “Mirrors of the Other”

“It was clear that they had a relationship that was very strong and full of love.”

Image via Focus Features

One thing I was really impressed by was that we don’t really spend too much time discussing the relationship and the history between your characters, but I still felt how important that friendship is. For the two of you behind the scenes, what is the key to establishing that when, ultimately on screen, you’re not going to be able to explain it away for viewers?
DEPP: You said this early, but it was really there in the script. I feel like upon the first reading of the script it was clear that they had a relationship that was very strong and full of love and a really kind of profound, meaningful friendship. And also that they almost kind of served as mirrors of the other, of aspects of the other that they can’t quite get to themselves. I think Anna represents the kind of woman that Ellen feels she should be or would like to be but can’t because she has so much darkness within her that she doesn’t quite know what to do with. And I think similarly, Ellen probably represents some wildness that maybe Anna doesn’t have within her. So, yeah, there was so much to that relationship that was already there, and so I feel like for us as actors, it was cool to dive into it.
These ‘Nosferatu’ Scenes Were the Toughest to Tackle

“I’m scared of that one.”

Image Via Universal

Lily-Rose, going back to the physicality, and perhaps everything you have to do in this movie, I could sit here and break down every single powerhouse scene you have, but we do not have that kind of time. Of all of the scenes you have in this movie, going into filming, which did you think was going to be the most challenging for you, and ultimately, was it, or did a different scene catch you by surprise?
CORRIN: Great question.
DEPP: Actually, great question. Randomly, the scene I was most afraid of is, without giving anything away, towards the end of the movie. There’s a big climactic scene between Nick [Hoult] and myself that is difficult emotionally and physically. There’s a one-shot aspect to it, which also makes things harder because there’s not much cutting around. It’s a big arc of a scene. It starts in one place and ends in a completely different one. I feel like, often, when you read a script, you’re like, “I’m scared of that one,” and that one always scared me. We shot it for a couple of days. We started shooting on, like, my second day of shooting, so I was like, “Alright, we’re just diving right into the deep end!” So, that one I was nervous for, and it kind of was as hard as I was expecting it to be.
But then randomly, a scene that was tough, not for physical or emotional reasons, but sometimes you just have a day where something’s just hard — the scene with us on the beach.
CORRIN: Oh my god, yeah.
DEPP: It was really hard. I was really.
CORRIN: Why was that?
DEPP: I don’t know.
CORRIN: Something in the language, as well?
DEPP: Something in the language, and I think Rob [Eggers] wanted a certain thing that was very specific, and I guess I just wasn’t attacking from right angle that day.
CORRIN: I think it’s also the difference… Because we’d been shooting on stages, you and I, basically the whole time, and suddenly, to be outdoors in the world…
DEPP: And the tide was coming up.

Image Via Universal

CORRIN: And there was a time pressure which always makes everyone a bit on edge. I remember that.
DEPP: Sometimes it’s the scenes you think are not going to be a problem, and somehow, randomly, it’s a hard part. That one was tough.
CORRIN: Yeah! It was tough.
Lily-Rose Depp Studied Japanese Butoh and 19th Century Female Hysteria

Image via Focus Features

Back to the physicality of the performance, what kind of conversations did you have with Robert and also your movement coach to figure out the specific techniques and the pillars of that movement so that, no matter what phase she’s in, whenever she goes back to those movements, they always feel consistent, perhaps like what’s happening to her is the same all the time?
DEPP: Actually, it’s interesting because there needs to be a consistency and a coherency to those moments, but also, you don’t want all of them to feel exactly the same. You want them to be rooted in an emotion that is truthful and also lends itself to the arc of what she’s going through and serves as an external manifestation of her internal pain and possession. So, we really worked not only to choreograph from a physical standpoint but also from an emotional standpoint, as well. It was important to have, like you said, pillars, things that we could hold on to, which were the different inspirations that we had. One of them was Japanese Butoh, which is a Japanese performance art form, which is fascinating, as well as 19th-century female hysteria studies that offered us some interesting kind of just poses that we were going back to. That was also the importance of choreographing it, not only to find it but also to have a structure that we could rely on so that when we were shooting, I could let the emotion take over as well.
There was so much stuff in that respect that when I’m watching it on screen, I’m just like, “How? How are you doing that?”
CORRIN: The back arch, for me, because it happens so quickly.
There are a lot of wonderful cinematic back arches, but that is towards the top of the list now, so very well done!

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Emma Corrin Perfects Unimaginable Terror

“It’s hard when you’re doing that kind of reaction to base it in any kind of reality.”

Image via Focus Features

Emma, for you, I want to dance around spoilers with this particular moment, but I am obsessed with reaction shots to big scares, and there’s a particular one for you where a door opens and you just have to be there. What do you need to do prep-wise so that the second they say go, you can have that level of emotion and sheer terror on your face?
CORRIN: I was terrified [laughs] because it was a lot of pressure, and Bill [Skarsgård] wasn’t there on the day, so I was reacting to an empty room, which was insane. But Rob is very specific in his direction in a way that actually really helps you because you know that he’ll never let you leave without it being perfect and what he needs, which is very reassuring and relaxing, and also, we sort of worked on a temperature or, like, 1-10 scale. So, we did a few takes and he was like, “Okay, you’re giving me a five. We need it to a 10 or 12. Bigger eyes…” He’s very specific, and in a scene like that, it’s just a blessing. It’s hard when you’re doing that kind of reaction to base it in any kind of reality that you might have experienced because you just can’t.
Nosferatu possesses theaters on December 25.

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A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.

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