Willem Dafoe, The Man With A Thousand Faces
Willem Dafoe, nearing 70, continues his prolific career with the upcoming Nosferatu, showcasing his versatility in film while balancing numerous projects and his life in Rome, Italy.
Just shy of turning 70, Willem Dafoe is adding to his superb film career with his new movie, Nosferatu, a reimagining of the classic Dracula story, set to be released this fall. This new project seems to be just one of many he has in the pipeline — too many to even list in this article. Just last year, the versatile American actor played in Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos and in Saverio Costanzo’s new Italian film Finalmente l’Alba (Finally Dawn).
Willem Dafoe, born on July 22, 1955, in Appleton, Wisconsin, is one of the most versatile actors of his generation, capable of playing superhero villains as well as tortured artists in art-house movies. He has more than 100 film credits to his name. Since 2005, he has been married to Italian director Giada Colagrande. He lives in Rome and speaks Italian quite well.
The son of a surgeon and a nurse who worked together, Dafoe was raised in the Midwest mainly by his five sisters, as his parents were always busy. He studied drama at the University in Milwaukee before moving to New York City in 1976. He soon founded a theatre company called the Wooster Group with some friends. He continued to perform with the group after his film career had taken off, well into the 2000s.
Dafoe played small parts in a variety of movies in the early ’80s as well as more important roles in indie films, and started getting noticed by film critics.
His first major success was his part in the Oliver Stone movie Platoon, released in 1986, a role that earned Dafoe his first Oscar nomination. Even though it was shot outdoors, making the movie was far from a walk in the park. “We got thrown into the jungle. We didn’t know what was going to happen,” he remembers. “We heard something vague about two weeks’ training. The people who brought us there left, and then we started digging holes and were trained very seriously for two weeks by ex- soldiers, cut off from the outside world. It rooted the movie. You couldn’t do this nowadays.”
Dafoe is known for playing villains or quirky characters, but he’s also famous for being one of the few actors who have played Jesus on screen, as he did in 1988 in The Last Temptation of Christ, directed by Martin Scorsese. “Playing Jesus demanded a lot of me,” he says. “It was clear that the emphasis would be on finding the human aspect of Jesus. The first thing I had to do was forget I was playing Jesus. We shot in Morocco, no trailers. It was shot very fast. I wasn’t prepared for any controversy because I thought it was a beautiful film!”
Playing Norman Osborne/the Green Goblin in the first Spider-Man movie, released in 2002, made Willem Dafoe a household name and marks the tart of the second part of his career. The movie unleashed a new genre — the superhero movie — and was a box-office smash. It was also well received by critics. “I loved playing the double role,” says Dafoe. “The more interesting role was probably the father, Norman Osborne, though. It would switch from comedy to drama in a line.” He also really enjoyed the physical aspect of the role. “To be on a wire, to fly around was challenging and athletic, but also so much fun,” he says, smiling.
“IN MY EXPERIENCE, A GOOD DIRECTOR CREATES A WORLD WHERE THERE’S A LOGIC TO WHAT YOU’RE DOING. THE BEST EXPERIENCES HAPPEN WHEN YOU’RE GIVEN A GOOD SETUP.”
“At the beginning of my career, people were like, ‘This guy plays bad guys.’ Playing bad guys is fun, but I was worried about typecasting. I’m not worried anymore. As I got older, the parts I play are a mix of different things.”
In 2004’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Dafoe’s first project with Wes Anderson, he plays a German oceanographer assisting the main character, played by Bill Murray. Dafoe thrives in an environment where a lot of freedom is given to actors to add to the text. “We spent all day working on these very complex shots, but what you see is not all on the page,” says Dafoe. “As precise as Wes Anderson is, it developed as we were doing it. Some of the stuff was invented on the spot.” Dafoe went on to appear in seven Wes Anderson movies.
In 2018’s At Eternity’s Gate, Dafoe portrayed Vincent van Gogh in the final months of his life, which were also his most productive. The Dutch master was creating close to one painting per day at the end of his life. It’s fitting for an actor like Dafoe, who has been working consistently for nearly half a century. “I’d been helping with the script a bit, just as a friend,” remembers Dafoe. “One day, I got called at Julian’s house [director Julian Schnabel], and he put this red beard on me, and then we did it. In the end, you have to forget the research, forget who you’re playing, and try to find the human aspect.” Dafoe called it “the role of a lifetime” and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Most of the paintings in the movie were painted by Schnabel, who is also a painter, but a few were painted by Dafoe himself. The movie had a profound effect on him. “It changed how I see things in life,” he said, at the time.
In 2023, Willem Dafoe starred in the Italian movie Finally Dawn, written and directed by Costanzo (Who also directed My Brilliant Friend). It is set over about 24 hours in Rome in 1953, primarily at Cinecittà. “I’ve known Alba for a long time,” explains Dafoe. “She’s close friends with my wife, Giada, and I became acquainted with Saverio’s work when I was on the jury at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007 and saw his In memoria di me, which left a strong impression on me. Later, I watched The Solitude of Prime Numbers and some episodes of his series In Treatment and My Brilliant Friend. He’s someone to reckon with, very competent and creative.”
Finally Dawn is about Cinecittà, the studio emblematic of Italy’s “golden era” of cinema. It was often used in Italian movies, but American epics like Cleopatra were also shot there. Willem felt connected to the place. “I’ve worked at Cinecittà often, and when you arrive, you’re surrounded by prop sets, costumes, scenery and memorabilia from past cinema,” he says. “Cinecittà is a functioning studio but also a historical museum. When I started spending more time in Italy, my wife, Giada, introduced me more deeply to Italian cinema from the past and the life of that period. I also talked a lot about it with Marcello Mastroianni, who told me many stories and helped me imagine the social and artistic life of cinema at that time, including its dark side — the drugs, manipulations, decadence.”
Dafoe has worked with a number of great directors, from Martin Scorsese to Oliver Stone, from Wes Anderson to David Lynch. He thinks people have some misconceptions about what it takes to be a good filmmaker. “People imagine that a good director talks to the actors a lot and tells them what to do,” he explains. “But in my experience, a good director creates a world where there’s a logic to what you’re doing. The best experiences happen when you’re given a good setup.”
“I KEEP WORKING! IF I WERE TO STOP, SOMEONE ELSE WOULD WRITE MY BOOK. I’LL NEVER ALLOW THAT!”
Dafoe’s exciting career hasn’t slowed down in recent years. He played mad scientist Godwin Baxter in the 2023 movie Poor Things. The movie went on to be a worldwide box-office success. “I’m very happy with its success,” says Dafoe. “I find it fantastic that the audience is responding with such enthusiasm to such a bizarre story set in the past. The makeup was more time-consuming than anything else. Initially, it took four hours to apply the makeup and two to remove it. But this is also helpful because you’re sitting in that chair and can’t fall asleep. So, you look at yourself in the mirror, and sometimes you have to cooperate with the makeup artist as they apply elements around your eyes and mouth. While you look at yourself something emerges. It’s the perfect preparation, and when it emerges, you’re someone else, ready for your scene.” In the movie, Dafoe plays a poignant, suffering character. “That’s the beauty of this film,” he says. “You understand that he had a very painful life, and the way he dealt with the pain was to dedicate himself to something, turning the pain into something positive. He’s a very compassionate person, and I think that’s one of the reasons he bonds so much with Bella. He hopes there’s a better future for her, too, transforming that pain into something more pleasant. I was very aware of this while shooting the film.”
At the time of this interview, Dafoe was on set in Wales. “Bad weather here, and the food is not as good as in Italy, unfortunately,” he laughs. “It’s for a film called A Man in My Basement, based on a noir novel by Walter Mosley. And I have several films about to be released, including the re- imagining of Nosferatu, the first vampire in cinema history. And then I shot another film with Yorgos Lanthimos, again with Emma Stone, right after Poor Things. It was an apt reunion with people I love.”
So, does Willem Dafoe spend any time reflecting on his own career and life? “Probably,” he laughs. “If only for the inevitability of aging. And the different relationships with different women and the things you do as the years pass, and your vanity is turned upside down. You’ve been famous. You’ve been successful. And now? I keep working! If I were to stop, someone else would write my book. I’ll never allow that!”
INTERVIEW BY SAMANTHA REYES