We sat down with acclaimed actor and director Willem Dafoe and asked him to explain a few things—from bringing Oscar Issac on set of 'Poor Things' to tease Mark Ruffalo about replacing his role, to why he volunteered to have Emma Stone slap him 20 times for an off-camera scene. Plus, the Spider-Man star also spills on almost playing Batman.
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00:00 Oh, God, what do you think the lighthouse is about?
00:02 Go see the movie, lazy bum.
00:05 I did a draft to explain it.
00:07 Just watch it and you figure it out.
00:09 I'm Willem Dafoe and Asquire has asked me
00:13 to explain a few things.
00:15 Let's go.
00:16 The internet is obsessed with this photo.
00:25 Can you explain it, please?
00:26 Yes, I can.
00:27 I did this movie called "Inside."
00:29 And I'm trapped in this house and there's all these paintings and objects
00:34 because the guy's an art collector, among other things.
00:36 The owner of the building.
00:38 I'm a art thief and I get trapped in there and I can't get out.
00:42 And there were these sculptures which were oranges.
00:46 They were very realistic.
00:48 They looked like rotten fruit.
00:50 And there was also a sculpture of a half-smoked cigarette.
00:55 So the artist asked me if I could take a photo with them.
01:00 So I did it.
01:01 It's a simple thing.
01:02 And the little bum put it on the internet.
01:05 First of all, it looked like I was smoking.
01:07 And second of all, it looked like I had a thing about rotten oranges,
01:11 which I don't particularly.
01:13 Then people started playing with it and it turned into a meme.
01:16 You know, they started putting different things in my hand,
01:18 different things in my mouth.
01:19 I mean, it got a little wacky.
01:22 That damn internet.
01:24 You're happy to have people play with your image,
01:26 but sometimes it's not so nice.
01:29 How would you describe the Willem Dafoe drip?
01:32 The drip thing?
01:33 That had to be described to me.
01:36 I didn't know what drip was.
01:38 Do I have a personal style?
01:39 I don't think I do.
01:41 I'm a blank slate.
01:42 You know, I'm interested in clothes to the degree that clothes,
01:45 you know, I'm an actor.
01:46 I appreciate clothes.
01:47 I appreciate them.
01:48 Mostly other people's clothes.
01:51 But for me, yeah, I value clothes because they're a kind of costume.
01:57 And I value costumes because they can really affect how you work.
02:02 And I appreciate what they can do.
02:04 But personally, I don't want to take the time thinking about what to wear.
02:10 So maybe that's my style.
02:12 That I don't quite think about it and I bounce around.
02:16 So my personal style is all full of things.
02:19 All full of contradictory things.
02:21 Hey, you guys, let's go down to Crambo's and get a drink from the bubbler.
02:26 What is the most challenging accent you have ever tried?
02:29 I don't know.
02:29 But one thing's interesting is I speak Italian.
02:32 I can't do a good Italian accent.
02:41 Maybe it's out of respect.
02:42 I don't know.
02:43 Beside the really broad Chico Marx one.
02:47 I can't do it.
02:48 Maybe I'll learn one day.
02:49 Which of your characters would you most want to have a meal with and why?
02:53 You know, Jesus, I know there's going to be a nice glass of wine.
02:56 A nice loaf of bread.
02:59 That's okay.
03:02 Who I wouldn't want to have it with is probably Bobby Peru from Wild at Heart.
03:09 He'd be eating fast food.
03:11 Very fast food.
03:13 Okay, the cat's out of the bag.
03:16 You know, Mark, he's brilliant in this movie.
03:19 And when we were rehearsing, he kept on bellyaching about,
03:22 "Oh, I feel, I don't know, it's too much.
03:26 Maybe I'm not right for this."
03:27 And he was just, I think, reaching for reassurance.
03:30 And we were happy to give it to him to a degree.
03:33 But I thought, "Oh, man, let's give this guy a good little scare."
03:38 Oscar Isaac was shooting at another part of the studio where we were in Budapest.
03:43 And Mark one day said, "I saw Oscar Isaac's here.
03:48 Is he here to replace me?"
03:53 I said, "Oh, no, no, no, don't be silly."
03:56 And the next day, since I knew Oscar because I had worked with him, I said, "Come over."
04:01 And he came over at lunch and we staged this little scene like he had come to tell Mark
04:06 that it was over and he was taking over.
04:08 But that lasted for about a second.
04:11 But it was a good joke, yeah?
04:13 Good practical joke.
04:14 "Whose decision was it for you to go to mortician school?"
04:19 It's not really mortician school.
04:21 We had a wonderful teacher, this young woman who was the head person at the mortuary in
04:29 Budapest where we were shooting.
04:31 And she took Rami Youssef and myself and taught us how to suture, also flay flesh, also gave
04:40 us instruction about how to do certain things about autopsies.
04:44 But she was very cool.
04:45 And the thing that I loved about her is she worked all the time.
04:49 And every second that she didn't work, she was a gamer.
04:53 So she's Louise.
04:54 Think about that.
04:55 A woman that works in the mortuary and the rest of her time, all she does is get behind
05:01 the computer and play all these virtual games.
05:04 Wow.
05:05 "What did you do to pass the time in the makeup chair?"
05:08 We're talking about poor things, long makeup preparation, four hours in, two hours out.
05:15 You meditate.
05:16 You can't really sleep because you've got to cooperate with them because the pieces
05:21 are sometimes quite small.
05:23 Your call is usually three o'clock in the morning.
05:27 So you try to turn it into a good thing.
05:30 It helps you get into character, certainly, because you recede and the character comes
05:34 forward as you're looking in the mirror.
05:36 But meditation, meditation, meditation.
05:39 "Why did you volunteer to let Emma Stone slap you?"
05:42 Listen, you try to be there for the other actor.
05:45 This isn't in poor things.
05:48 It's in the kinds of kindness.
05:51 It's just gotten a new title.
05:52 But there was a scene and she had a very long monologue.
05:56 And right before the monologue, she slaps me.
05:58 And I felt like she'd do much better.
06:01 She'd get a much better start on the speech if she could slap me rather than miming it.
06:07 And she was down with that.
06:08 She said, "Thank you very much."
06:10 But we did the speech many, many times.
06:13 But I'm a big boy.
06:14 I can take it.
06:15 Anytime you get a chance to help out, it's a gift to yourself.
06:19 You know what I'm saying?
06:20 "Can you explain this connection, Batman and Beetlejuice?"
06:24 I did a role of Beetlejuice 2.
06:26 And I'm excited to see it.
06:28 I don't want to say too much about it.
06:30 And years ago, in the original Batman, there was some--
06:34 and to be fair, I hate these stories where actors say, "I almost played there.
06:39 They wanted me to play, but it didn't happen."
06:42 You know, those are terrible stories.
06:44 And half of them are not true.
06:46 But I heard rumors that they were interested in me for playing Batman.
06:52 I was younger then.
06:54 Maybe I was more handsome then.
06:56 I don't know.
06:57 You think I could have been Batman?
06:59 I think so.
07:00 But it wasn't meant to be.
07:02 And that's fine.
07:04 Batman went fine without me.
07:06 And I am fine.
07:08 I did not die without that role.
07:10 No, I don't think like that.
07:14 I don't think about roles so much.
07:15 I think about situations.
07:17 I think about people to work with.
07:19 I think about adventure.
07:21 I'm into going from not knowing to jumping into an adventure.
07:26 Those are always the most beautiful experiences for me.
07:29 So, nope.
07:30 But on the other hand, bring it on.
07:34 I'll play another villain.
07:35 What do you remember most from shooting Platoon?
07:38 Ah, Platoon was a really rich experience.
07:40 So I think of many things.
07:42 I went there when there was a revolution.
07:45 And my plane was the last plane in.
07:47 And I had flown from New York to Manila.
07:50 And I took a little nap because it's a long flight.
07:52 And I was in the High Rise Hotel.
07:54 And I opened the bird drapes.
07:56 And I saw tanks going down the street.
07:58 Then shortly after, I got a phone call from one of the producers.
08:02 They were like, "Sit tight.
08:04 The movie's canceled.
08:05 We'll get you out when we can."
08:07 They had expelled all Westerners the week before.
08:11 So I was a gringo at the center of this fairly bloodless people power revolution.
08:18 And I was with them out on the street.
08:20 And it was a real exhilarating experience because the people felt the power.
08:24 It was a really great time for me.
08:28 You've worked with Wes Anderson five times.
08:30 Is your opinion what makes him such a great filmmaker?
08:32 You know, he has vision.
08:34 He sees things.
08:36 He can articulate certain feelings that are very specific.
08:40 He's fun to work with because he's so precise.
08:43 And when he asks you to do something, he's playing with what he sees, you know, your essences.
08:50 So then once he kind of frames you, usually it's a pretty good setup because he's not a madman.
08:57 He sees something there and then you lean into it.
09:00 And sometimes it's pretty amusing.
09:02 Did you ever spend a night at the Magic Castle Inn?
09:05 Yes, I did.
09:07 I lived there pretty much.
09:08 I mean, actually, I'd go home usually and I'd stay at a nice hotel because you got to be in top
09:13 form when you're making movies.
09:15 But the whole thing was we were spending all our time there.
09:18 And the people that were living at the motel where we made the Florida Project, we were
09:24 learning how to do the movie from them because we were watching them.
09:28 We didn't want to interpret their life.
09:30 We wanted to be a part of their life.
09:31 So we were an extension of what they were doing.
09:33 And that was the cool thing.
09:34 So it's very rooted.
09:36 And it's very hard to make a movie that doesn't have a sense of reality or isn't truthful or
09:41 doesn't have a personal stake when you're with the people because you come to love them and
09:45 you come to respect them and you want to represent them well, even if it's not always a flattering
09:52 portrait, at least make it true.
09:54 So you're not making something that's, you know, bullshit.
09:58 What was the audition process for Last Temptation of Christ?
10:01 Ah, very interesting.
10:04 I had heard about this movie.
10:06 They were auditioning everybody and their brother.
10:08 They didn't see me.
10:09 They didn't want to talk to me.
10:11 They weren't interested in me.
10:12 Fine.
10:13 What can I do about that?
10:15 And then one day I get a call and they say, Mark Scorsese wants to talk to you.
10:20 And I say, what's he want to talk to me about?
10:23 Last Temptation of Christ.
10:24 And I say, cool.
10:25 What role?
10:26 They say, you idiot, for Christ.
10:28 And I'm like, really?
10:29 That's not a great idea.
10:32 And then I said, send me the script.
10:34 And of course, I'd love to talk to him.
10:37 So I read the script and then I got it.
10:39 I thought, oh, I get it.
10:41 Yes, I should play this role.
10:43 And I went in.
10:45 We talked.
10:45 I said, yes.
10:46 I loved it.
10:48 He saw that I was a guy to do it.
10:50 And it was a beautiful experience.
10:52 And I think it's as much as you can be in love or not in love with your movies.
10:57 It's a beautiful movie.
10:58 Well, a lot of people say I visited the horror a lot, a lot since then.
11:08 But labels are tricky.
11:10 One man's horror is another man's.
11:12 I don't know.
11:14 I don't know.
11:15 Well, that's kind of ending with a whimper.
11:19 I wish we had one more to really kick it off.
11:21 But that's what editing is for, folks.
11:23 Thanks for watching.