Willem Dafoe picks his favourite indie movies: “They teach you how to be human”
Willem Dafoe is by no means an actor averse to plying his trade in mainstream fare. A cursory glance at his filmography includes appearances in action movies like Clear and Present Danger, Speed 2: Cruise Control, and John Wick. Recently, he starred in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Aquaman and even reprised his iconic role as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Having said all this, though, Dafoe’s career has always followed its own mazy path, with countless diversions into brave, pioneering pieces of independent cinema – and these roles tend to be his favourites.
During a 2021 interview with Port magazine, Dafoe was asked why he gravitates to films made outside the Hollywood studio model even more than those he makes within those confines. He answered: “I feel very comfortable on the fringes. I mean, there are pleasures to making big studio movies, but I don’t get to collaborate on the same level. They’re movies made with different intentions, different resources, and different people. I like to mix it up. Home is always the place where I feel loose.”
Two directors Dafoe has repeatedly worked with on these off-the-beaten-path films are Abel Ferrara and Paul Schrader. He has made six films with Ferrara, including Siberia, Pasolini, and New Rose Hotel, and seven with Schrader, including The Card Counter, Light Sleeper, and Auto Focus. What is it about working with those uncompromising creative forces that keep Dafoe coming back, though?
The Poor Things star explained: “You develop a shorthand; you develop a trust. As an actor, I like it best when I’m the creature of someone who’s making a world. They want to see something, and I’m a guy who gets fed into this world. They’re whispering in my ear, and I’m trying to make it manifest. You feel like you’re doing a service, and you get away from yourself. It’s someone else’s agenda. So that’s a nice way to work.”
Interestingly, Dafoe insisted that it’s the work itself which keeps their collaborations strong, and he doesn’t necessarily have to be friendly with the director. He said, “I know Abel pretty well because we’re neighbours, and we have similar interests. Paul, on the other hand, outside of work, I barely ever see him. We’re close, but it’s always in the context of work. So it’s not just about working with friends; it’s working in a situation where you don’t waste a lot of time defining terms.”
The two independent films in his catalogue which Dafoe treasures the most, though, are The Florida Project – directed by Sean Baker – and Tommaso – directed by his old pal Ferrara. Why are they his favourites, though? Well, Dafoe explained that the form of these films – which couldn’t have been more different than the average Hollywood programmer – spoke to him deeply.
Dafoe explained: “They are dear to me because they were shot in unconventional ways and with colleagues who aren’t always professional actors. It’s an interesting challenge to drop your professional performer mindset and come to a reality that is shaped by people that are in their element and not used to performing or making fiction from their experiences. Rather than you teaching them how to perform, they teach you how to be human.”
