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Why Robert Eggers' Nosferatu Cast a Romanian Grandmother Known for Her TikTok Cooking Videos
What is a classic vampire movie without angry villagers spouting ominous warnings?
A classic vampire movie isn't really a classic vampire movie unless an out-of-towner receives ominous warnings from angry villagers as the newcomer makes their way to the creepy castle perched on a yonder mountaintop. Writer-director-producer Robert Eggers saw no reason to dispense with tradition when he set out to realize his longtime passion project: a modern reimagining of the 1922 horror film, Nosferatu, a seminal adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula that kicked off cinema's obsession with undead bloodsuckers.
Like its silent and colorless predecessor, Eggers' version brings us to the foot of Transylvania's Carpathian Mountains in Romania by way of Thomas Hutter (Renfield's Nicholas Hoult), an estate agent hoping to secure the business of one Count Orlok (Barbarian's Bill Skarsgård). Hutter doesn't know it yet, but Orlok is a ghoul harboring a dark fascination for Thomas's wife, Ellen (Voyager's Lily-Rose Depp).
After mentioning that he's en route to Orlok's creepy residence, Mr. Hutter finds himself under fire from disquieted locals, whose population includes an elderly woman played by a genuine Romanian grandmother famous for her TikTok cooking videos.
Why Nosferatu cast Bunica, a TikTok-famous grandmother from Romania
"She goes by the name Bunica, which means 'Granny,' and she has a TikTok account that her niece makes for her, where she cooks traditional Romanian food. That's how we found her," Eggers explains to Empire in the magazine's 2025 preview issue (now on sale right here). "She had some camera savvy because she's been on a talk show. And she has an imagination — she's from Southern Romania, but she did a Transylvanian accent for the movie. Which I didn't know, but she does."
Check out Bunica's culinary videos here!
Eggers' devotion to authenticity also applied to Orlok himself, with the emaciated vampire speaking Dacian, a dead language once used by the ancestors of ethnic Romanians. For these subtitled instances, Eggers worked closely with native Transylvanian screenwriter Florin Lăzărescu, who "was very helpful with the folklore" aspect of the script.
"Florin Lazarescu, the Transylvania expert, said, 'You remember — I know everyone likes to ignore it — but you remember that often in the folklore, it says the vampire was red-faced.' And I'm like, 'F***'," the filmmaker recalled at a post-screening Q&A moderated by Guillermo del Toro last month (via CinemaBlend). "In the scenes where his face is actually red, it's like fire lit, so you can't really see it. But we have like blood pooling under his flesh in certain places to try to reference that."
How to watch Nosferatu in theaters
Audiences can officially sink their fangs into Nosferatu Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25. Click here for tickets! The film, which is rated R "for bloody violent content, graphic nudity and some sexual content," currently holds a fresh 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In addition to Hoult, Skarsgård, and Depp, Nosferatu also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy), Emma Corrin (Deadpool & Wolverine), Ralph Ineson (The First Omen), Simon McBurney (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation), and Willem Dafoe (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice).
Looking for more bloodsucking action? Head on over to Peacock for Renfield, Abigail, Dark Shadows, The Vampire Diaries, Vampire Academy, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Let the Right One in, Vampire in Vegas, and more!
