‘To Live and Die in LA’: The most pivotal role of Willem Dafoe’s career
The career of Willem Dafoe is defined by a fearless commitment to the craft of acting itself, and the Wisconsin-born cinema icon has proven time and time again that he’s as capable of handling himself and delivering a captivating performance in an independent drama as he is a blockbuster action movie.
Over the years, we’ve seen Dafoe as a lonely lighthouse keeper in Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, as an obsessive scientist in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, as Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate, and even as Jesus Christ himself in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, proving the actor’s truly remarkable versatility in front of the camera.
However, like any actor, Dafoe had to earn his stripes in the field of acting, and after performing in an experimental theatre troupe, he made early film efforts in the likes of The Loveless, The Hunger and Streets of Fire before arriving at what may well be the most pivotal role in his career.
An effort as Rick Masters in William Friedkin’s neo-noir action crime thriller To Live and Die in L.A. marks the moment at which Dafoe’s name would become forever associated with the medium of cinema itself. Released in 1985, Friedkin’s film focuses on two Secret Service agents, played by William Petersen and Michael Greene, who are tasked with tracking down Dafoe’s counterfeiter antagonist.
When one of the agents dies, the other makes it his personal obsession to bring Masters to justice, and Friedkin dives headfirst into this very obsession, exploring how easy it is for the lines of right and wrong to become blurred in a criminal world where morality plays second fiddle to ambition and violence. Los Angeles is shown in all its gritty glory, and a tense soundtrack by Wang Chung, plus cinematography of the highest order by Robby Muller, led to the film becoming something of a cult classic.
Dafoe’s performance is truly breathtaking and shows in full detail his early promise as an actor. His turn as Rick Masters reveals a cunning charisma and a juxtaposition between the two facets of his character, one shocking and repulsive, the other somewhat alluring and charming, showcasing the actor’s profound versatility.
A sense of unbridled cool runs through To Live and Die in L.A. and particularly through Dafoe’s character, but he’s also capable of leaving enough emotional chinks in his affectless armour to reveal a vulnerability that lies beneath, creating a villain who is at once evil and yet somehow tormented by his own psychological underpinnings.
Dafoe was able to create a tense on-screen chemistry with William Petersen as they engaged in their persistent game of cat-and-mouse throughout the film. His most physical moments show a young actor at the peak of his life, just about to set off on what would become one of the greatest careers American cinema would ever know.
To Live and Die in L.A. simply became one of the most important performances that Dafoe ever gave. Firstly, it marked a departure from his previous roles and showed his capacity for depicting complex characters with an ambiguous moral outlook; Rick Masters was not just a cookie-cutter bad guy but a genuine antagonist with layers of emotion to peel away.
In addition, Dafoe worked with one of the legends of Hollywood, William Friedkin. The opportunity to collaborate with the masterful director of The Exorcist would have undoubtedly given the young actor a boost of confidence, and together, they crafted an excellent piece of action cinema that has withstood the test of time.
Most important, though, is the fact that Dafoe was quickly offered bigger roles, given the critical admiration that came his way shortly after To Live and Die in L.A. was released. In just the next few years, Dafoe starred in Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ and Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, and from that moment, he never looked back, always going on to bigger and better things, gaining credibility every time he took to the screen.
Check out the trailer for To Live and Die in L.A. below.
