Widely regarded as one of the most talented and inimitable filmmakers currently plying their trade in the genre,Robert Eggershas forged a reputation for himself as one of thebest modern horror directorsin the space of little under a decade. Beginning with his feature film directorial debut in 2015’sThe Witch,Eggers' quartet of historical movieshas received critical acclaim, seamlessly blending elements of various genres while placing a heavy emphasis on horror and folklore. The director’s latest movie, a lauded adaptation of 1922’sNosferatu, has proved no exception to this trend.
However, all the celebrated filmmaker’s success would never have been possible without an array of stunning performances from the men and women charged with bringing his characters and premises to life onscreen, from frequent artistic collaborators to one-and-done wonders and newer cast additions.The best performances in Robert Eggers' moviescan be found scattered relatively evenly throughout his filmography to date, featuring knockout bows from some of the most talented and beloved faces that Hollywood has to offer.
10Aaron Taylor-Johnson As Friedrich Harding
Nosferatu (2024)
Taking on a role in a Robert Eggers movie for the first time in 2024’sNosferatu,Kraven the Hunterstar Aaron Taylor-Johnson was charged with bringing supporting character Friedrich Harding to life.Based on theDraculacharacter, Arthur Holmwood, the actor’s charge meets a decidedly more tragic fate than his literary counterpart. A grief-stricken Harding dies of the plague after Count Orlok murders his entire family, with the heavy intimation that he committed necrophilia with his wife’s corpse resulting in one ofNosferatu’smost shocking scenes.
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While Taylor-Johnson struggles to escape the constraints of a notably underwritten role, the actor does his best with what he has to work with. TheKick-Assalum’s efforts may come across as slightly hammy in patches, but he still does a commendable job of capturing Friedrich’s haughty pomposity and sense of incredulous disbelief at the supernatural events unfolding before his eyes. Taylor-Johnson also lends heartbreaking authenticity to the inconsolable grief that takes Friedrich following the loss of his family, bringing the tale of one of the movie’s more tragic characters full circle.
9Anya Taylor-Joy As Olga
The Northman (2022)
The Queen’s Gambitstar Anya Taylor-Joy has always found her name inextricably linked with that of Robert Eggers since her breakout role in 2015’sThe Witch, the movie that incidentally also served as the director’s introduction to mainstream pop-culture. The actress' second collaboration with Eggers sawTaylor-Joy play the role of Olgain 2022’s historical action epicThe Northman,a Slavic sorceress and the love interest of Alexander Skårsgard’s titular character.
Anya Taylor-Joy was originally slated to appear in 2024’s Nosferatu, before eventually being replaced with Lily-Rose Depp.
TheFuriosa: A Mad Max Sagastar is known for her exceptionally nuanced performances at this point in proceedings, and Taylor-Joy doesn’t disappoint with another mesmerizing bow here. Olga and Amleth’s romance serves as one of the movie’s most compelling elements, a remarkable status quo given the vast gap in ages between the two real-life performers, that is due in no small part to the committed efforts of the American actress. Lending determination and mystique to her latest Eggers production bow in equal measure, Taylor-Joy’s next collaboration with the director is sure to be one to watch.
8Willem Dafoe As Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz
Returning for his third Robert Eggers movie in a row,Willem Dafoe steps into the boots of the magnificently mustachioed Professor Albin Eberhart von Franzin 2024’sbox-office smash-hitNosferatu.The film’s equivalent ofDracula’slegendary vampire hunter, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a significant part of what makes Dafoe’s performance inNosferatuso superb is the barely disguised joy that the established A-Lister is clearly taking in his latest bow.
Willem Dafoe received one of his four Academy Award nominations for his work in another vampire-based movie, 2000’sShadow of the Vampire.
A disgraced former professor and current occult expert brought in to examine Ellen Hutter, Dafoe’s endlessly watchable charge lurches between logical and maniacal at the drop of a hat. Von Franz is the best mad scientist character that cinema has seen in years, with the actor lending a unique brand of chaotic energy to proceedings that steal the show in every scene he appears in. In particular, the image of a cackling Von Franz against the backdrop of Orlok’s burning crypt already has the makings of an iconic horror snapshot.
7Alexander Skarsgård As Amleth
The leading man of Robert Eggers' first action movie, 2022’sThe Northman, Alexander Skarsgård absolutely killed it in his take on the eponymous character. Based on theScandinavian legend of Amleth,the movie sees theTrue Bloodalum play a Viking prince on a brutal quest to avenge his father.Skarsgård completely loses himself in his performance here, producing a devastating depiction of merciless retribution that is often jarringly juxtaposed against a surprising degree of vulnerability for such a terrifying warrior.
Leveraging his excellent chemistry with co-star Anya Taylor-Joy to maximum effect, Skarsgård’s first collaboration with Eggers sees him turn in what is contentiously a career-best performance. Carrying this blood-soaked tale of vengeance through his formidable onscreen presence, the Swedish actor also plays off his primary onscreen adversary, Claes Bang’s Fjölnir, in textbook fashion to lend primal authenticity to this fictional mortal enmity.
6Bill Skarsgård As Count Orlok
It seems mildly ironic that, despite taking on the role of the titular, and purportedly main, character in 2024’sNosferatu,Itstar Bill Skarsgård doesn’t actually turn in the movie’s best performance. This is due in large part to the nature of his character’s role in Robert Eggers' acclaimed horror movie. Count Orlok’s full appearance is only slowly unveiled throughout the movie and is nearly always shrouded in darkness, whileSkarsgård is also buried in enough prostheticsto conceal a missing head.
Accordingly, it speaks volumes to the quality of the Swedish actor’s performance that he still turns in a memorable bow; Skarsgård’s co-stars were allegedly terrified of him on-set. However, the most impressive aspect of theBarbarianstar’s performance is undoubtedly the voice he imbues Orlok with. Deftly sidestepping any potential comedic pitfalls associated with his character’s old-time style cadence, Skarsgård’s ominously booming delivery is pitch perfect, from his accent down to the very tone of his voice.
5Anya Taylor-Joy As Thomasin
The Witch (2015)
Serving as the breakout moment for one of Hollywood’s most prominent current A-Listers, Anya Taylor-Joy’s first major role in 2015’sThe Witchmarked the actress out as a name to watch moving forward.The Menustar plays Thomasin against the backdrop of Robert Eggers' feature film debut,a young Puritan woman who goes on to become a witch after a series of malevolent supernatural occurrences plague her family.
The Witch
Cast
The Witch follows a 1630s family that relocates to a remote New England farm. Strange, unsettling events transpire, causing mounting suspicion and paranoia. This testing environment challenges the family’s faith, loyalty, and love amid isolation and tension as they confront the unknown forces lurking beyond their new home.
Widely regarded as one of thebest horror movies of the 2010s,The Witch’senviable status as such is due in no small part to Taylor-Joy’s impressive efforts. The actress captures the considerable nuances of the coming-of-age transformation at the heart of Eggers' movie in masterful style, a state of affairs that is all the more remarkable considering that this was her feature film debut.
4Nicholas Hoult As Thomas Hutter
Nicholas Hoult has come a long way since his days onSkins. Following in his recent vein of vampire-themed movies after his bow as the titular character in 2023’sRenfield,the Englishman was cast as Thomas Hutter in 2024’sNosferatu,a role that allegedly sawHoult nearly attacked by wolvesduring filming. Based on Bram Stoker’s iconic character Jonathan Harker, Hoult took to his new charge like a duck to water, turning in a performance that captures the essence of his confusing and conflicting relationship with his wife Ellen in heartbreaking style.
…Hoult’s performance lends an air of near-feral desperation to his charge that results in one of the most powerful horror bows in recent memory.
Determined to help his beloved, but rendered powerless by not knowing how to act, Hoult’s performance lends an air of near-feral desperation to his charge that results in one of the most powerful horror bows in recent memory. The Englishman is also notably excellent in his early scenes with Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok, producing a harrowing snapshot of the visceral terror associated with being confronted by such a terrifying being.
3Willem Dafoe As Thomas Wake
The Lighthouse (2019)
Widely regarded as one of the most influential movies of the 2010s, Robert Eggers’The Lighthousewalks the lines between various genres without ever quite deciding which camp to ultimately land in. Depicting two lighthouse keepers marooned in the titular structure and their subsequent descent into madness, the movie is carried by a pair of powerhouse performances from Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
Nosferatu(2024)
Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz
Dafoe is in sparkling form against the backdrop of his first Eggers movie as the aging Thomas Wake, a hobbled former able-seaman and the more senior of the two lighthouse keepers. There’s something almost Shakespearean about the actor’s masterful take on Wake, capturing every nuance of the pair’s time isolated together in a manner that lurches between darkly humorous and completely disturbing with little to no warning. It’s one of thePlatoonstar’s most impressive roles, an acclaimed performance that also happens to feature one ofDafoe’s most gruesome movie deaths.
2Robert Pattinson As Ephraim Winslow / Thomas Howard
Willem Dafoe turns in an exemplary performance as Thomas Wake in 2019’sThe Lighthouse, a state of affairs that says a lot about the masterful quality of his co-star Robert Pattinson’s performance, considering thatThe Batmanstar ultimately ends up overshadowing him. Pattinson is absolutely magnificent in his sole Eggers movie appearance to date as “Ephraim Winslow,“a lighthouse keeper later revealed to be an impostor by the name of Thomas Wake.
The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse is a psychological thriller directed by Robert Eggers. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star as Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow, two lighthouse keepers who begin to experience strange and supernatural phenomena after they get stranded on a remote island in the 1890s.
TheTwilightalum brings every aspect of Winslow’s surreal slide into madness to life with a performance that relentlessly builds in intensity across 109 mind-bending minutes. The actor effortlessly chronicles his character’s jarring transformation from a grim and taciturn man with a sullen disposition at the movie’s outset to an unraveled individual consumed with nail-biting paranoia and uncertainty by the end.The Lighthouserepresents acareer-best movie performance for Pattinson, and is one of the most impressive pieces of dramatic work in recent memory.
1Lily-Rose Depp As Ellen Hutter
The pressure was decidedly on Lily-Rose Depp to deliver in her role as Ellen Hutter in 2024’sNosferatu.Not only was it the young actress' first leading role in a major blockbuster, but frequent Robert Eggers collaborator Anya Taylor-Joy had also originally been attached to the role. The decision to replace the established actress with Depp was met with considerable backlash from some fans, with many decrying Depp’s lack of experience and igniting the nepo-baby debate once again.
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Robert Eggers’ 2024 horror film, Nosferatu, follows Ellen Hutter, a woman who is caught between her beloved husband and the vampire she once loved.
Of course, that was untilNosferatudebuted and Depp proceeded to blow her critics out of the water with a bow for the ages.Producing the best performance in a Robert Eggers movie to date,theWolfstar is mesmerizing in her take on Count Orlok’s prey, Ellen Hutter, capturing every impassioned nuance of this tortured soul with unflinching clarity.Drawing inspiration from 1981’sPossession,Depp is also particularly impressive in the sequences depicting paranormal occurrences, producing a notably harrowing depiction of Ellen’s supernatural seizures that lingers in the mind’s eye long after the credits roll.
Nosferatu
Nosferatu is a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name from director F. W. Murnau. Robert Eggers is crafting his own version of the story for the reboot as writer and director, with Bill Skarsgård stepping into the shoes of Count Orlok. Nosferatu tells the tale of a young woman who falls victim to a vampire utterly infatuated with her.
