Willem Dafoe has built a career defined by range and gentle intensity (except for when he’s being downright terrifying). Here he offers his take on a few of his major roles.
Willem Dafoe as Jesus in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ.”
(Universal Pictures)
“The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988, directed by Martin Scorsese)
Dafoe embraced the role of a most human Jesus in Scorsese’s controversial adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel. “It was one of the best experiences I’ve had,” Dafoe says. “People forget it was a low, low-budget movie. Shooting in Morocco, no trailers, Hollywood couldn’t have been further away. It was demanding, and I liked that. Throw me in the deep end, jump off the cliff, I’ll find my wings. That’s the best way.”When I finished making that movie, I felt like, ‘Well, I gave it everything I had.’ That’s a good feeling.’
“Wild at Heart” (1990, directed by David Lynch)
Donning false teeth and a homicidal sneer, Dafoe embodied pure evil in Lynch’s crazed road movie, starring opposite Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage. “That character was in this kid from Wisconsin’s brain probably from a very early age,” Dafoe says. “But he was also so far from me. He was in my imagination. If you give me those tools and I can start to pretend the way little kids pretend, it’s very direct, with no desire to judge or decide. You’re just in it. There’s a part of me that always wants to have a little bit of that feeling. It’s a beautiful film, a beautiful role, and David was very easy and fun to work with.”
Willem Dafoe played the actor playing the title character in the making of “Nosferatu” in 2000’s “Shadow of the Vampire”
(Jean-Paul Kiefer)
“Shadow of the Vampire” (2000, directed by E. Elias Merhige)
Dafoe found his inner bloodsucker in this mischievous thriller, playing silent film actor Max Schreck as he gets a little too deep into the title role of the German Expressionist classic “Nosferatu.” “I got to copy a little because I had a good place to start,” Dafoe says. “You don’t live by copying, but sometimes you can start by copying. “And I had a beautiful model, because Max Schreck did exist and ‘Nosferatu’ did exist as a piece of film.” There were plenty of things to play with — a good script, a good concept, fantastic makeup. It was just one of those things that taps into your imagination.”
Willem Dafoe played scientist Norman Osborne in “Spider-Man.”
(Zade Rosenthal/Columbia Pictures)
“Spider-Man” (2002, directed by Sam Raimi)
Dafoe brought gravitas to one of the first and best 21st century superhero movies, playing the ambitious scientist Norman Osborn and his villainous alter ego, the Green Goblin. “I loved doing the wire work, and Sam was a gas,” Dafoe says. “He was like a kid in a candy store. He was really connected to the story. Those movies take so much delegating, so much planning. He would be sitting there directing a scene, and there would be a line of people that had to have a conference with him, like he was the village mayor or something. I think somehow he really believed in the stuff Peter Parker says, and really believed in the heart of the movie.”“He was never cynical. He just had a good time with all the toys he had.”
“I just wanted to be the best hotel manager I could be,” Dafoe says of starring in Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project.”
(A24)
“The Florida Project” (2017, directed by Sean Baker)
Dafoe worked opposite a cast of mostly nonactors as a benevolent but firm motel manager, catering to wandering souls in the shadow of Walt Disney World. “Sean Baker goes someplace, embeds himself in that world, lives that world and has those people tell him how to make a movie,” Dafoe says. “We get there, we’re living with these people. We’re not going to tell their story in a bull— way. We’re going to watch them. We’re going to learn from them. This was my chance to not be an actor, not have that stink of being an actor, that egotistical, show-off, controlling, making choices, being clever part of being an actor. There are beautiful things about being an actor, but there are also some kind of superficial ones. I just wanted to be the best hotel manager I could be.”
