“Nosferatu”, interview with actor Willem Dafoe

December 16, 2024

Willem Dafoe: “You can say Eggers is me in the respect that I’m his creature, he sends me out and take his landscape and I like that relationship with a director”

“Nosferatu”, interview with actor Willem Dafoe Chiara Nicoletti

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“Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers, coming out in Italian cinemas on January 1st, marks the third collaboration between the director and actor Willem Dafoe.

Dafoe was indeed among the protagonists of “The Lighthouse” and “The Northman“, the second and third film directed by the American director who made his directorial debut in 2015 with “The Witch“.

“Nosferatu” draws inspiration from both the 1922 masterpiece by F.W. Murnau and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dafoe plays the role of professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, a doctor specialized in the occult, demons, vampires, creatures from above.

He’s the only one who’s able to cure and understand Ellen (Lily Rose-Depp), a young wife to real estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a woman that, since childhood, has become the object of a powerful vampire’s lustful attention and obsession.

As producer Chris Columbus said that Eggers’ office looked like the one of a vampirology professor, Albin Eberhart Von Franz might have been the role the director would have chosen to play himself. Basically Von Franz is Eggers and Eggers is Willem Dafoe.

Willem Dafoe admits that there’s some truth in this affirmation and adds: “ You can say Eggers is me in the respect that I’m his creature, he sends me out and take his landscape and I like that relationship with a director”

Plot

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

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Lily-Rose Depp Robert Eggers

Guest

Willem Dafoe

Film

Nosferatu The Lighthouse The Northman The Witch

Festival

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