The character role Willem Dafoe admitted was “tedious”
In terms of actors who have demonstrated some of the most striking commitment to their performances, it’s hard to look beyond the incredible dedication of Willem Dafoe. He has demonstrated his prowess and talent in front of the camera on some of the most memorable occasions in modern cinema history.
Dafoe has shown time and time again that he can portray a wide range of characters with a stunning degree of authenticity and believability. Whether he’s delivering Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate, a Vietnam War Sergeant in Platoon or even the son of God himself in The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ, Dafoe has always come up with the acting goods.
Still, for every character role that Dafoe has relished taking on and enjoyed every moment of, there must invariably have been those that he found to be somewhat irksome. In fact, Dafoe once spoke of a moment in his career that he had somewhat conflicted feelings about, being excited about the prospects of the character and story but dogged by the physical challenges of bringing them on screen.
Back in 2002, Sam Raimi released the first of his Spider-Man trilogy, starring Tobey Maguire in the lead role and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson. Dafoe plays the Oscorp founder and father of Peter Parker’s friend Harry, Norman Osborn, who eventually turns into the film’s antagonist, the Green Goblin, after testing a performance-enhancing chemical on himself and going insane.
Speaking with the BBC, Dafoe once admitted that he is not particularly interested in comics but thought that the role in Spider-Man might provide him with a new career avenue. “Sometimes cinema is strangled by naturalism, so I am interested in tapping into what’s magical about the cinema, and that often means finding new styles and ways of telling stories that aren’t measured in terms of naturalism and behaviour we recognise,” the actor explained.
Indeed, there’s a distinctive air of fantasy to Spider-Man and most superhero movies, the likes of which would allow Dafoe to free himself from the shackles of naturalism and explore a different side of acting. However, there was a physical challenge in playing the Green Goblin as a result of a reliance on green screen, which Dafoe was not entirely enamoured with.
“You know, in a movie like this that has lots of effects, it can get tedious sometimes because the shooting ratio to what’s up on the screen… it’s mind-blowing,” he noted. “I’m in that green suit a lot – I mean a lot! – so it’s more about patience than being gruelling.” Still, Dafoe persevered like the genuine professional that he truly is and added a much-needed air of acting quality to Spider-Man in the way that only he could.
As for how he first came to take on the role of Norman/the Green Goblin, Dafoe explained how Raimi had called him at a “weird hour”, and what he had expected to be a “ten-minute phone call” soon turned into a lengthy conversation through which the director “started to tell me the story, and told it in such incredible psychological detail, talking about the relationships without getting to the action or the Green Goblin/Spider-Man stuff”.
Two hours later, Dafoe was made aware that Raimi wasn’t just hoping to shoot a “hardware movie” but really cared about the film’s characterisation and story, and thus, he was convinced to take on the role. Then all he had to do was get into that damned green suit for the foreseeable future…
