Lily-Rose Depp said she has found a “real through line” between her roles in the short-lived HBO show “The Idol” and Robert Eggers’ fresh take on the classic silent vampire film “Nosferatu.”
Depp told IndieWire she is “absolutely” feeling her physical and emotional work as Jocelyn – the troubled pop star romantically linked to Tedros (played by The Weeknd) on “The Idol,” the focus of a disturbing Rolling Stone exposé – taught her “so much” before she played the role of Ellen Hutter in Eggers’ film.
“Jocelyn and Ellen couldn’t be more different characters, and the worlds they have couldn’t be more different,” Depp said.
“There’s a common thread for me in the fact that they’re both very specific, demanding roles and that’s clearly something I want to explore.”
She described “The Idol,” which The Weeknd co-created with Sam Levinson and Reza Fahim, as a “real growth period” for her as an actor and as a person.
The show, which was panned by critics and canceled after one season, marked the first time Depp had starred in a TV series in her acting career.
In ‘Nosferatu’, Depp plays a ‘ghostly young woman’ who is haunted by a Transylvanian vampire Count Orlok (played by Bill Skarsgård) who is ‘in love’ with her, per movie synopsis.
Depp — in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter – noted that the role was “physically and emotionally demanding,” as Ellen fills with tears, contorts her body and convulses as her eyes roll back in a film assisted by choreographer Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, an expert in Japanese butoh.
“The torment she goes through is the meat of the movie,” Depp said of “Nosferatu.”
‘The darkness she has carried with her since childhood is now coming to a head. She has found a husband who has been able to anchor her in the world, the light, and then he goes away, leaving her vulnerable to the forces that want to claim her.”
She told IndieWire that she learned “so much” on “The Idol” that it “carried with her” to “Nosferatu,” which she said was shot just two months after the HBO show wrapped.
“So I feel like I had that in my body, the physicality and the emotion and all that. I definitely took that with me, even though it’s a very different style of filmmaking,” Depp said.
“It’s very different in many ways, but I felt those similarities.”
Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ hit theaters on Wednesday.