Willem Dafoe talks about Nosferatu, written and directed by Robert Eggers, where he plays Professor Van Franz, an expert on occultism.
The actor had already starred in other films by the director, The Lighthouse (2019) and The Northman (2022), and in Shadow of the Vampire (2000) he had played Max Schreck, the protagonist of the German silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, inspired by Dracula, the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker.
You already knew the vampire Nosferatu, did you do further research this film?
Obviously I had a relationship with Nosferatu because I had played the actor Max Schreck in the film The Shadow of the Vampire, which however had a very different comic tone from this film, but still it had served as an introduction. I had already seen the 1922 Nosferatu, but then I studied it so I could copy that interpretation in my 2000 film. I have seen many other films about Dracula and Nosferatu over the years. I especially liked Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) by Werner Herzog with Klaus Kinski, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola with Gary Oldman. They are all very different films, but mostly of literary and romantic style, while this Nosferatu by Rob is based on the legends of folklore.
Willem Dafoe-Shadow of the Vampire
Do these legendary vampires, in film and literature, fascinate you personally?
Since I was a child I have always been interested in the afterlife and obsessed with the idea of death, at least in tales. I don’t want to make it sound like I was upset by these thoughts, because they’re actually a good thing. The great strength and flexibility of the vampire legend is that it is a person who comes from the other world to visit the living. For me it is a powerful image because it opens a door to the afterlife and begins a dialog or imagination about our existence and our death. After all, this is a philosophical investigation that I was very curious about from an early age, thinking about death and the living dead has always interested me, I do not find it strange, but very natural.
Willem Dafoe-NOSFERATU (c) Aidan Monaghan-FOCUS
During the preparation to play Professor Von Franz, what did you learn about occultism?
Rob gave me a lot of material to read about folkloric legends, because in my dialog I talk about things that I wasn’t very good at or that I didn’t know at all. For example, I wanted to know where the Solomonari (magicians of Romanian folklore) come from, their origin, what the pentagram (symbol of paganism) means. I find it very natural to do this kind of research, so I understand what I’m talking about, and you can see that I believe in these traditions in the history of folklore.
Willem Dafoe, Lily-Rose Depp-Nosferatu © Focus
How does Professor Van Franz manage to help Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) defeat the vampire?
I like their relationship because they are both marginalized, so when I come to her, I see her for who she really is, there is a sense of complicity and a recognition of darkness, and she immediately trusts me. Most of the other characters in this story want to be comfortable and happy, live their lives, like we all do, denying the dark side of life. Because my character has studied the invisible things that we can’t explain, when he comes to help Ellen on her journey, he understands it deeply, even though the consequences are tragic.
Nosferatu was released in US cinemas on December 25, in Italy on December 31.
Written for Best Movie.it. Read here the original Italian text