Homages and Inspirations
“One of my favorite books growing up was ‘Dracula,’ and I always loved Harker’s trip to meet Dracula for the first time and there was something about this environment, especially when it was covered in this layer of powdered sugar, that just seemed so unbelievably sinister.” – David Fincher
“Again, going back to ‘Dracula’, I’ve never done the ‘castle on the hill’ shot before, but it’s fun to reference it every once in a while”
~ David Fincher
During the scene you see above Fincher explains how the dialogue was inspired by something his daughter used to say to him.
“This is something that when my daughter was very young,” Fincher begins. “I used to try to ‘playfully’ crack her back and she would say to me, ‘No, daddy, you’re not a doctor.’ So I thought this would be a nice moment when [Lisbeth] comes at him with dental floss and a needle and he says, ‘Hey, remember you’re not a doctor.'”
David Bowie’s “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” inspired the shadows on Lisbeth’s face in the above scene where shadows were painted onto her face similar to how they were in the video. Makeup artist Pat McGrath came up with the look and makeup artist Torsten Witte eventually did the final work you see above based on McGrath’s lead.
