Nosferatu star Willem Dafoe describes his "surprising" first reaction to Bill Skarsgård as Orlok: "It was something that we hadn't seen before"

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Willem Dafoe has a long history with Nosferatu, stemming back to his performance in 2000's Shadow of the Vampire. In the horror dark comedy, Dafoe played Max Schreck, the actor who originated the role of Count Orlok in F. W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

The legendary actor tells GamesRadar+ that it was a real treat then to return to this story for Robert Eggers' Nosferatu, where he plays the eccentric professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz.

"I mean to prepare for Shadow of the Vampire, which is this movie in 2000 I believe it was, it was a very different movie," Dafoe explains. "It's really sort of a strange comedy, but I watched Nosferatu, the original Murnau, many, many times, because basically, to prepare we were quoting the film all over the place. The whole point was I was playing Max Schreck who plays Nosferatu. So I was very familiar with the film."

He smiles adding: "It's been with me a long time. So very different and I'm sure I bring that with me, but it's a whole different ball game, and through [Eggers'] eyes, it's a completely different experience."

One of the major differences between the movies is how it tackles Count Orlok's appearance. Schreck's unique look in the '20s movie is iconic, but Eggers' lead Bill Skarsgård brings a very different performance in this reimagined story – and Dafoe is a big fan.

"I loved it because it was something that we hadn't seen before, and it was surprising," he recalls. "And also, clearly, I mean, Rob can talk about this, but it had real roots in something. It looked like a dead Romanian nobleman, a guy that had been dead for a while. And it came from someplace and it was steer of all the other vampires and Nosferatu before it."

Nosferatu is released in US theaters on Christmas Day and UK cinemas on New Year's Day. Read our Nosferatu review here. For more scares, check out our guides to upcoming horror movies and the best horror movies of all time.