“Sometimes people accuse me of…What do you call it?
But I think one man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
Willem Dafoebristles at the phrase “over the top.”
Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz in ‘Nosferatu’.FOCUS FEATURES
To the best of his recollection, he always had this reaction.
Ultimately, “I don’t recognize it,” he tellsEntertainment Weekly.
“I like energetic performances.
Catherine McCormack and Willem Dafoe in ‘Shadow of the Vampire’.Lions Gate/Everett
I like engaged performances.
I like performances that don’t lay back and make the audience come to them.
I like you to put it out there.”
Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh in ‘At Eternity’s Gate’.Lily Gavin/CBS Films
Dafoe is one of our lifetime’s masters of “putting it out there.”
“There’s all kinds of performances, but I can’t help myself.
That’s my energy,” Dafoe continues.
Willem Dafoe’s Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz in ‘Nosferatu’.Aidan Monaghan / 2023 FOCUS FEATURES
“I get excited.
We deserve more than an imitation of natural behavior.
Film is better than that.
It’s not just to remind us what we know.
It gives us the possibility to look beyond our experience.
So, why lay back and create an environment where we’re just recognizing it?
Why not turn up the heat a little bit and lean into more extreme situations?”
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In the case ofNosferatu, that sentiment becomes quite literal.
“What are you going to do,whisperthrough this scene?”
Dafoe remarks, chuckling.
How does Dafoe feel about the word “muse”?
“Muse sounds good,” he says.
“I think he probably switches out his muse on each movie.
I don’t think it’s me, but I like the idea of being a collaborator.
I like the idea of being an extension of what he is trying to do.”
Dafoe previously played the Count Orlok role in a roundabout way.
Eggers says he spoke “a little bit” about this connection with Dafoe when casting his own adaptation.
“That was a wonderful experience,” Dafoe recalls ofShadow of the Vampire.
“One of the biggest takeaways was how beautiful it is to have extreme makeup.
I had very heavy makeup; I was unrecognizable.
You see yourself recede and the character come forward.
You don’t look like yourself.
You don’t feel like yourself.
you could’t move like yourself.
It becomes a beautiful trigger for your imagination and an invitation to explore other behavior.”
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Audiences responded quite well toShadow of the Vampire, including Academy voters.
Dafoe earned one of his four career Oscar nominations that year, which surprises him even to this day.
“It was a very tiny film,” he acknowledges.
The Academy also historically doesn’t typically recognize horror films.
(Clearly,there are exceptions.)
Dafoe wonders how this year’s awards race will shake out forNosferatu.
Dafoe sees parallels between his own makeup transformation for Max Schreck-as-Orlok inShadow of the Vampireand hisNosferatucostar’s journey.
“There’s some great performances and beautiful displays of various craft aspects.
The Oscars also previously honored Dafoe’s roles with nominations forPlatoon, as Sgt.
Though they all feel distinct, what connects them is Dafoe’s enthusiasm for the work.
He deems that observation flattering.
“Energy is important,” he notes.
“Sometimes people accuse me of…What do you call it?
But I think one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
I don’t worry so much about what people think.
Ultimately, you just venture to keep that level of…the best word really is engagement….
I’m grateful that I get to do work that I love to do.
I love being on a movie set.
When Dafoe finally arrives on screen deep into the movie, he gives us a release.
The audience endures horror after horror, including jump scares (something Eggers previously declined to embrace).
So, in that gap, he recognizes great ironies.
“Without great actors to go there, the movie would fall apart,” Eggers remarks.
That includes Dafoe, who’s confident he will find something else to unite him with this auteur.
“I like returning,” he says, smiling.
