Nicholas Hoult had to wade through up to 5,000 “incontinent rats” while filming ‘Nosferatu’: “It was kinda stinky”
Nicholas Hoult had to wade through thousands of rats while filming Nosferatu, the actor recalled on The Graham Norton Show last week.
Hoult plays Thomas Hutter in the movie, a remake of the classic 1922 horror of the same name, based on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. He’s alongside the likes of Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Willem Dafoe in an ensemble cast.
He joked to Norton that the movie had a “big rat budget,” explaining: “I think we had like 5,000 rats. Some of them were trained as well. They were all trained, and I was like, ‘You couldn’t have trained all of them.’ There were certain pockets of them that were trained. And they were incontinent rats, so it was kinda stinky.”
Norton joked in response: “They’re not incontinent, they just don’t care. Why would they care? ‘Oh, I’ll hold it.’”
Hoult said with a laugh: “I heard someone else say they were incontinent, it sounded smart. You’re right, they’re just rats. They just pee and poo anywhere. Luckily, I just had to wade through them.”
Elsewhere, Hoult shared in a conversation with Hugh Grant that Nosferatu director Robert Eggers discouraged the cast from moving their eyebrows while filming. He said: “There’s not really too many laughs in Nosferatu, I would say. It’s gothic horror and Robert Eggers is such a master of creating worlds and tension. For him, it was about honesty and authenticity, but also he would give us lots of movies to watch performance wise. Lots of Soviet cinema, [Ingmar] Bergmann movies. He hates when actors move their eyebrows.”
Nosferatu premiered at the Zoo Palast cinema in Berlin on December 2 and is set for release on December 25. In a three-star review, NME described the “bloody, beautiful vampire remake” as “a bit of an empty vessel,” and said: “What marks out Eggers’s take from the many adaptations of Dracula’s story is its visual style. The American filmmaker has rightfully earned a reputation for impressive looking movies but Nosferatu is perhaps the most beautiful film of the past 12 months.
“Teaming up with regular cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, the horror’s ornate, artistic frames are always impactful, whether they’re depicting a plague of rats overcoming a city or fire engulfing a tomb. It’s a treat for the eyes. As for the energetic cast, they’re having so much fun that the film’s occasional slow periods aren’t too tiresome.
“There are, however, questions about whether we really need yet another faithful cover of this old tune that loom heavy over the film, just like Orlok over Wisborg. Unless you’re attempting something wildly radical, why bother? This take on Nosferatu may be essential viewing for fans of gothic horror but must be recommended with caution for everyone else.”
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Adam England
NME
