The film for which Willem Dafoe was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor: “The Florida Project” starts on Thursday. He plays the caretaker and manager of a motel complex in Florida that is home to people who actually can’t afford to live and who are scraping up rent from day to day somewhere – just a few miles from Disney World theme park.
He didn’t get the Oscar, but once once more a lot of praise for his unpretentious game. Willem Dafoe was never the leading man in Hollywood, mostly playing in independent and auteur films, often in European ones, such as in Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” or Wim Wenders “In Far Far Distance, So Close”. And if he has acted in mainstream films like “Spider Man” or “John Wick” or “Mord im Orientexpress”, then in prominent supporting roles.
Sigrid Fischer: You were the only professional actor on the set of “The Florida Project”, the others were partly real residents of the motel complex that you oversee as Bobby. Did you have to adjust somehow?
Willem Dafoe: It was my job to adapt to them. And not being an actor, but a person. By the way, that’s always my job. I didn’t have to help them either, they were so excited to be there that it was fun to be with them. You were really good at pretending. You didn’t have that embarrassment of asking yourself: what’s the point? where is this going? That was really pleasant.
“I want to be the director’s creature”
Fischer: How regarding a young director like Sean Baker? You experience more and more often that directors are younger than you.
Dafoe: I want to be the director’s creature. And it’s a little easier with older, more experienced directors. When they’re younger, they tend to have too much respect for the actor. It’s often a bit of a struggle because you have to encourage them to be brave. But without controlling or inhibiting them. That means you have to surrender and help them at the same time, because you may have more experience.
Fischer: Do you remember, Willem Dafoe, how it was with you as a young beginner? How long did it take you to feel confident enough to say, yes, I want to be an actor. I can do it.
Dafoe: I don’t know, I don’t remember. I never knew exactly where I was going in life. Somehow that came gradually. I was never someone with clear goals in mind. But I always knew what excited me. And what I would die for – you know what I mean. I always knew where my passions were. And how to wake them up.
And luckily, I came to New York at a time when a lot of people weren’t even trained in what they did. They were amateurs. For example the punk musicians. They might barely play guitar, but they were passionate regarding music and they just played. The result was a couple of very interesting, personal things. And they were in opposition to society. I found that all very exciting back then. And then I did something similar in another discipline. But I was a creature of that time.
Fischer: You shoot mainly in the independent and arthouse area, often with European directors, Lars von Trier for example
Dafoe: That’s right, I didn’t even make a third of my films in the United States, I’m traveling in many countries for an American actor. I often find the interesting projects in Europe. Because I believe in auteur films.
Lars’ ability, for example, to pronounce the unspeakable like in “Antichrist” – even if I don’t understand everything in the film – but imagery and poetry are so strong that it amazes me. Okay, he talks nonsense sometimes, but as a filmmaker he’s just exciting.
Fischer: In Europe we see films less as an economic product than as art.
Dafoe: Yes, but we already have that in the USA.
Fischer: Sure, of course. Willem Dafoe, as critically as you look at your projects, are you also critical of yourself?
Dafoe: I guess I am, I wish I wasn’t.
Fischer: In what way? What do you mean?
Dafoe: Well, I am a demanding person. Because I take what I do seriously. Because if you do it well, then that is something very powerful. I don’t just mean the acting, but the films themselves, they are beautiful. And importantly, they can change the way we think and our way of life. And if you’re lucky enough to make films, I’d find it irresponsible not to be careful regarding it.
“Technology has made filmmaking a lot more democratic”
Fischer: Today, movies are shot with cell phones – Sean Baker did that before “The Florida Project”, just like Steven Soderbergh now did with “Unsane”. Movies are also watched on cell phones. And anyway, the ambitious directors and actors shoot series on television today. How do you like this development?
Dafoe: I think that’s good. There are so many ways to make films today, technology has made filmmaking a lot more democratic. It’s good. But you are also a little confused because you can see films in so many places these days that there is no longer any discourse. Because everyone sits in their small, comfortable corner and you no longer talk to each other.
And the problem with the long series format is: you spend a lot of time with your character, and actors can also get very lazy. It can certainly also have its charm when characters develop very slowly. But there is a certain tension missing, the kick, the bite is missing. But believe me, if I mightn’t find any more interesting film roles, then of course I would be there right away. Because I just love to play too much.
Fischer: The characters in “The Florida Project” who live in this motel because they actually can’t afford to “live” have fallen from the social network, they have been left behind. Presumably they would have voted Donald Trump, right?
Dafoe: Yes, that’s right, and that’s tragic. I don’t know anyone who likes Donald Trump, people complain. But you can’t get him out of there. All these scandals! But as long as the Republicans have a majority, they’ll protect him to keep the majority.
It’s incredible he’s still in office! I know exactly how he was chosen, how he became attractive to people. He reached her through her anger and her feeling of powerlessness. But things have turned out so badly that no one can believe he is still in office. But nobody knows how to get rid of him.
