when I was a kid I saw a picture of count orlock and it just had a kind of Haunting atmosphere that really stayed with me I've been thinking about how to do this story and how to make it my own for a very long time knows for to is a Gothic tale of obsession about a 19th century young woman and this ancient vampire who uh haunts her and brings about horror all around him coming I'm just excited for this retelling of this classic and incredible story I was such a fan of Rob's movies going into
this I just really wanted to do justice to him and his vision because it's something that he's wanted to make since he was 8 years old it is like a dream standing before me was death but I never means happy Our intention is to make something that is both Gothic and romantic but actually truly a scary horror movie I'm ready all the actors really put every bit ofs into it to make it the most dread filled and Atmospheric we possibly could Robert had a very particular vision for warlock nothing compares to this version of the
character it's genuinely scary it's a different look than we've seen of any vampire character you feel the dark Forces coursing through his body I could totally see how this story and its characters would lean so much towards Robert's work as a director he's also so attentive to detail and really questioning why these characters are doing what they're doing doing and why they're thinking and their motivations I think that's what Robert brings to his movies such artistic depth NOS foru is like no other movie I've ever done only you can redeem us it's the scariest performance
of my career I've never been more scared in playing a character come to me I'm Blown Away by the accuracy of the recreation of all these hisorical things that make the world so authentic and even down to the fine details like warlock's Crypt warlock's coffin is quite spectacular it's based on lots of research of mainly polish coffins the real ones like have skulls on the side of them you know and like how sick is that I remember just thinking wow they're not building sets they're building a world even the costumes on this film are so
phenomenal every single thing is so authentic so beautiful I can't wait for audiences to see this film everyone really put every bit of themselves into it to experience the scope and the scariness please go to the cinema and and see this one we are here encountering as for he's coming he is coming he is coming as a kid I was really really afraid of stuff and in making horror movies I get to explore fear and also control it hi I'm Robert Edgars and this is the origin story of no Fatu when I was about 8
or nine with the help of my mom we acquired a VHS of no Fatu and I was just really struck by how this version distilled the Dracula story into a very simple fairy tale the past really speaks to me so it's most interesting for me to think about who we are and where we're going from where we came from when I was in high school I had the idea of doing no Fatu as a stage play that would be a silent film on stage with black and white makeup Black and White costumes and super titles
and I thought maybe it was a silly idea but my friend Ashley Kelly T said no that's a cool idea so we directed it together and it cemented the fact that I wanted to be a director when I grew up with your first feature you have all these ideas about the movies you've wanted to make that have been brewing and growing with you and then they all come out in your first feature which becomes like very personal because of that even if you're still finding your footing and finding your voice but because no ratu's been
with me for so long this arguably is personal because I've been working on this film for 10 years or more it was challenging to find something that truly belonged to me required writing a rich backstory for orlock and a very rich backstory for Ellen so that I could then do my simple fairy tale but with a different kind of perspective it's sort of a strange feeling to actually be excited to share the movie uh for real that weird feeling makes me a little more vulnerable about it as well but I hope people enjoy it we
are here encountering the undead plague carrier no for watched this alone in a dark room last night never ideal so terrified but congratulations anyway I guess to ask you um first both of you about your characters maybe starting with you uh Lily um you seem to have an innate understanding of Ellen I think and the way that the characters portrayed that exploration of that 19th century perception of the link between sexuality and hysteria as it were you know what was so interesting about about Ellen there were I mean there were so many facets to her
that were so that were so exciting to me I think also knowing that Rob has wanted to make this for so long the Char you know in the script she was already written with so much complexity with like so much nuance and just like so much to dive into emotionally I think she's someone who you know is is struggling a lot and has a lot of you know tension inside of her and who's kind of torn between you know the Earthly realm and and kind of the the the the realm of of death in a
way I think she's like a kind of a person who has one foot in one foot in the one foot in another and and and so that you know we all know that like at the time period there was not a lot of room for women to be anything other than just like a good wife and a good mother and so you know Ellen is is in in from that point of view far from that and she's suffering from much more than I think you know people at the time or men at the time were
were willing to deal with and you see that in how some of the characters treat her and and you know she's much more than they than they want to deal with and I think that it speaks to you know a greater a a greater idea of kind of just like the com the complexities of of of a woman and how much of that we're actually willing to uh love and and and accept you know I think that even still today there are you know there are aspects of that that that ring true you know like
how much how much of yourself are you willing to um accept and still love yourself until the world makes you feel like you're like too hard to love you know going right getting right in there that's yeah that's that's really interesting but also I suppose for you it's it's a really iconic image of this young man riding off to Transylvania isn't it you know of and not knowing what he's going to encounter so you know your motivation for playing Thomas yeah I think I mean yeah that was that was a a huge part of it
but also this element of what you were just saying there I think you know Thomas can't understand Ellen but I think he is caring he's not as harsh as some some of the other male characters he does tot he he wants to kind of he doesn't brush it aside but he's really hopeful for the future their future which he he is misguided and naive and thinking that you know this better job and earning more money will provide what they need to put these kind this this difficult past behind them um and he can't as as
much as he'd want to he he can't hear or understand what it is that you're experiencing and that's kind of the the tragedy I suppose of him as the character cuz he can't conceive what's to come and then comes face to faced with this Terror and horror and realizes that he's been you know wrong about so many things in terms of their relationship but also in terms of the world and what exists so it's that's the big transformation for him I mean I know that NOS veratu has just meant so much to you you know
why has it resonated with you and it's still resonating with you yeah I mean I think that the you know when I first saw the more now film like on a VHS like of a bad 16mm print like it had a kind of magic to it that felt like real you know Max Shrek's makeup because the image was so degraded felt like you were just watching a vampire you know and uh and and the way that uh mow and Gallen adapted the story it's like it's just it's a simple fairy tale and there's and uh
and and there's so much mystery around it and so there is so much room for your imagination to go to go wild certainly it did uh as a child and then I was able to kind of you know amplify my knowledge about a cult and folklore and hysteria 19th century medicine and and do something that was my own take of this story while still keeping the basic movements of the story the same and you mean you know quite a lot about NOS ferati of course because you have played Max as well some time ago so
did you you brought an understanding of of what NOS verati is about very different movie but certainly I knew the original very very well because for uh shadow of the vampire even though it was very different I copied Max that's that's the way I approach the character um so I was very familiar with the original material but of course this movie um you know is inspired by that but there's also so many other influences for both of you can you remember the first time you might have either seen or heard Bill we heard him in
the rehearsal rooms and I was like wow this is unexpected but so perfect and true and felt rooted in so much history and and and was completely imposing and Powerful so it was his voice first and then you can talk about physically what yeah I mean I think hearing like hearing the voice like Nick said it was you know so perfect so terrifying and and and huge you know just the recording of it and then like so impressive that it it felt almost like hard to match to like a an actual like human body that
was producing this voice and so then when I did my first like rehearsal with Bill he was he was just you know normal like wearing like a normal outfit at but then doing the voice and I was saying like it f I was like couldn't even make the connection between this like completely human person that was in front of me and this petrifying demonic voice that was coming out of him um and so then when I first saw you know orlock in his full form like come to life I was like yeah that's who the
voice belongs to you know and um and and yeah it was incredibly impressive his you know performance is like completely transformative and and uh yeah absolutely incredible it seems like a very successful partnership between the two of you in the films what keeps you working together he gives me fun stuff to do uh and uh I enjoy being on his sets because they're so detailed so thoughtful um uh proper balance of uh passion fun and uh and uh challenge could you talk a little bit about transforming bill into count orlock and also the the use
of language in the film and what language you want you know him to speak uh well he he speaks um when he's doing his spells he speaks um ancient dasan which which is a dead language and it is the dacians were like Pro most likely people who uh uh became ethnic Romanians in Romania and and obviously orlocks from Transylvania um so uh and he is you know what I attempted to do with him visually is is make him look like a dead Transylvanian nobleman would actually have have looked like which you know is a a
different costume than we've ever seen and different hairstyle than we've ever seen for this uh character uh and uh you know but but it was a massive transformation of six hours of makeup for Bill he worked with an opera coach to lower his voice in octave there was a lot of work that went into him uh becoming orlock I will just ask um I wanted to ask about you putting Ellen as the character front and center in this one and I I really clocked the link between sexuality and you know Etc why was that why
was she why did you see her as the C I mean she becomes the central protagonist in in the mow film like when huter is comes home as a wet blanket from Transylvania but and and I thought it would just be much more exciting if it is her you know her story the whole time and to kind of un see that there were traces of Dracula and no Fatu that were uh like a Demon Lover Motif and to like to go further with that where you have this relationship and then the demon disappears and then
he returns you know and and that that would be a a nice way to tell the story [Music] ch [Music]
