Dafoe, Willem

views updated May 14 2018

DAFOE, Willem

Nationality: American. Born: William Dafoe in Appleton, Wisconsin, 22 July 1955. Family: Son with Elizabeth LeCompte: Jack. Education: Attended University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Career: 1975—Member of Theatre X experimental theatrical company; 1977—joined Wooster Group theatrical company; 1980—film debut in Heaven's Gate.Agent: Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, U.S.A.

Films as Actor:

1980: Heaven's Gate (Cimino)
1982: The Loveless (Bigelow) (as Vance)
1984: The Hunger (Tony Scott) (as phone booth youth); New York Nights (Nuchtern) (as punk boyfriend); Roadhouse 66 (John Mark Robinson) (as Johnny Harte); Streets of Fire (Walter Hill) (as Raven)
1985: To Live and Die in L.A. (Friedkin) (as Eric Masters); The Communists Are Comfortable (Kobland)
1986: Platoon (Oliver Stone) (as Sgt. Elias)
1987: Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (Couturie—doc, for TV) (as co-narrator); Hitchhiker 3 (for TV)
1988: The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese) (as Jesus Christ); Mississippi Burning (Alan Parker) (as Alan Ward); Off Limits (Saigon) (Crowe) (as Buck McGriff)
1989: Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone) (as Charlie); Triumph of the Spirit (Robert M. Young) (as Salamo Arouch)
1990: Cry-Baby (Waters) (as hateful guard); Wild at Heart (Lynch) (as Bobby Peru)
1991: Flight of the Intruder (Milius) (as Lt. Commander Virgil Cole)
1992: Light Sleeper (Schrader) (as John LeTour); White Sands (Donaldson) (as Ray Dolezal)
1993: Body of Evidence (Edel) (as Frank Dulaney); Faraway, So Close (In Weiter Ferne, So Nah!) (Wenders) (as Emit Flesti)
1994: Clear and Present Danger (Noyce) (as Clark); The Night and the Moment (Tato) (as the writer); Tom & Viv (Brian Gilbert) (as T. S. Eliot)
1995: The English Patient (Minghella) (as Caravaggio); Victory (Peploe)
1996: Basquiat (Build a Fort, Set It on Fire) (Schnabel); The Foolish Heart (Babenco)
1997: Speed 2: Cruise Control (De Bont) (as John Geiger)
1998: Affliction (Schrader) (as Rolfe Whitehouse); New Rose Hotel (Ferrara) (as X); eXistenZ (Cronenberg) (as Gas)
1999: The Boondock Saints (Duffy) (as FBI Agent Paul Smecker)
2000: American Psycho (Harron) (as Detective Donald Kimball); The Animal Factory (Buscemi) (as Earl Copen); Shadow of the Vampire (Merhige) (as Max Schreck); Pavilion of Women (Yim); Bullfighter (Bendixen) (as Father Ramirez)

Publications

By DAFOE: articles—

"In Search of Dafoe," interview with James Leverett and Kevin Sessums, in Interview (New York), June 1988.

"Willem Dafoe and John Lurie," interview with Lori J. Smith, in Interview (New York), October 1988.

"Willem Dafoe: Center Stage," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), May 1990.

"Willem Dafoe: Bigger than Life," interview with Michael Lassiter, in Advocate (Los Angeles), 13 August 1992.

McGregor, Alex, "Ready and Willem," in Time Out (London), 26 August 1992.

Cover story, interview with Russell Banks, in Interview (New York), January 1993.

Interview in Mensuel du Cinéma (Nice), no. 8, July-August 1993.

With G. Fuller, "Two Chums Who See Eye to Eye," in Interview (New York), February 1995.

Interview with Frances McDormand, in Bomb, no. 55, Spring 1996.

Interview with Michael Ondaatje, in Bomb, no. 58, Winter 1997.

On DAFOE: articles—

Ross, Philippe, "Willem Dafoe, l'ange du péché," in Revue du Cinéma (Paris), no. 443, November 1988.

Rochlin, Mary, "Lords of the Ring," in Harper's Bazaar (New York), December 1989.

Current Biography 1990, New York, 1990.

Woodward, Richard B., "The Wild One," in New York , 27 August 1990.

Blin, V., "Jouer en Militant," in Télérama (Paris), 17 March 1993.

Bromberg, C., "Wiild at Art," in New York, 5 May 1997.

* * *

Although one has a vivid mental image of Willem Dafoe, and the impression of a strong and striking presence, the more one thinks about his performances and the range of his roles (from demonic biker to Jesus Christ, with many variables in between), the more complex the persona appears, the more difficult to fix upon a stable core. Certain patterns form, but they are often contradictory.

One may begin by defining him negatively, by what he does not do. Aside from the grotesquerie of his small roles in Cry-Baby and Wild at Heart, he never plays comedy; he is seldom permitted a happy ending, especially the traditional one of lovers united; he is only slightly more frequently involved in love stories; although he has played in "action" movies he is far from a typical "action" hero. He is the kind of actor, in fact, that Hollywood needs but does not quite know what to do with. There is his unusual and expressive face, far from the conventional good looks that get inferior actors cast as romantic leads, which can be at times incredibly beautiful (Off Limits), intensely malevolent (Streets of Fire), or intriguingly decadent (To Live and Die in L.A.).

He has appeared most frequently in "dark" movies: contemporary variants on film noir (White Sands, Light Sleeper) or films of notably grim subject matter (Platoon, Triumph of the Spirit). His roles in these, however, have been extremely varied, running the gamut from villainy and evil to heroism and Christlike martyrdom. The first films in which he made a strong impression established the former. Streets of Fire is a misguided, deliriously stylized, homage to/parody of bad fifties B movies, that ends being at least as empty as what it parodies. The two leads, Michael Paré (doing a Sylvester Stallone imitation) and Diane Lane (looking sulky), form an ideal context in which Dafoe's demon biker can shine: he looks like a juvenile Frankenstein's monster gone berserk, and easily steals the film. The far more interesting To Live and Die in L.A. gives him a richer context and a much more complex role. His murderous counterfeiter, associated with art and (in the film's strangest moment) sexual ambiguity, is only ambiguously the villain in a film in which the nominally good/moral can easily (as in certain other Friedkin movies, notably Cruising) switch places with the nominally evil/immoral, within a world where everyone is implicated in corruption.

Only one year later Oliver Stone cast him in Platoon, initiating the series of "Christ" roles, as Stone's treatment of his death scene makes quite explicit. This is followed by two more "hero" roles: his purification through experience and the love of a good nun in Off Limits, and his naive and idealistic young civil rights worker from the North coming South to teach the helpless blacks how to take a stand in Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning, an eloquent example of those good intentions to which the road to hell is said to be paved. These in turn are followed by the culmination of this particular career trajectory, his selection by Scorsese to play Jesus himself in The Last Temptation of Christ. Despite the evident commitment and the alltoo-obviously strenuous effort, this seems to me Scorsese's one serious failure. But how do you present Christ on the screen? What course to steer between the human and the divine, between skepticism and belief? Significantly it is Dafoe's least memorable performance in a major role. Triumph of the Spirit, a year later, offered him more practicable opportunities in a variation on the "savior" role: a concentration camp inmate who both survives, and helps others to survive, through his prowess as a boxer, driving himself to ever greater exertions in order to stay alive.

Three years later, after a period in which it appeared that Dafoe had been relegated to the status of supporting player, taking variously grotesque roles in films ranging from the distinguished but compromised Born on the Fourth of July to the relentlessly atrocious Wild at Heart, his great moment arrived, in that unpredictable way in which such things occasionally happen in Hollywood: the central roles, and two of his best performances, in two films of considerable distinction, both released in 1992, White Sands and Light Sleeper. Unfortunately (as far as Dafoe's future career is concerned), the former performed at the box office indifferently, the latter disastrously.

All the negatives by which I defined Dafoe at the outset are contradicted in White Sands. This critically underrated film is among the most interesting of contemporary attempts to revive (by updating) film noir: it exceeds expectations in one direction while negating them in others. The image of America as a nation characterized by all-pervasive corruption and the resulting paranoia was a given of classical film noir but is here pushed further: the FBI are as criminal as the nominal criminals, and the ultimate figure of evil (Mickey Rourke) is finally revealed as a representative of the CIA. On the other hand, the apparent femme fatale (Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio) emerges as (although not uncontaminated—as she says, "It's a fine line") one of the film's most admirable characters, and the hero (Dafoe), whom we constantly expect to be sucked into the seemingly inescapable corruption, emerges intact (even if guilty of brief marital infidelity). Dafoe navigates the film's quicksands with splendid assurance, often as bewildered as the traditional noir protagonist (not to mention the audience) by the web of intrigue and double-dealing, but through a combination of pragmatism and integrity managing (just) to survive its pitfalls and temptations, his self-respect intact.

Light Sleeper (more central to the noir tradition with its urban setting, criminal underworld, and fallible and corrupt protagonist), offers him even greater opportunities to develop a complex character, here a drug dealer, tired and beginning to feel his age, attempting to extricate himself from a life he has come to find oppressive, but the forces of which, set in motion, are all-but-impossible to combat. Specifically, he is an apparently lost soul struggling upward toward salvation. The two films in juxtaposition might be taken as summing up two sides of the Dafoe persona, the innocent and the corrupt, striving for life within a dark, menacing, and hostile world.

Unfortunately, the following year (after a brief, indecisive venture into international co-production for Wenders's Faraway, So Close) marked the nadir of Dafoe's career so far: Body of Evidence, in which his ignominious function was to "support" the insupportable. Doubtless it seemed a good career move at the time, but it rebounded disastrously, as such things tend to do.

In recent years Dafoe has had the most distressingly bad fortune of any comparable contemporary American film actor. Three of the four films in which he has starred have failed to get a theatrical release. Victory (from Joseph Conrad's splendid novel) is apparently considered unreleasable and has not even appeared on video, a fact greatly to be regretted as Axel Heyst would be a perfect role for Dafoe. Night and the Moment is allegedly available on video, but stores deny all knowledge of it. New Rose Hotel is at least available on both video (incorrectly formatted) and DVD (in widescreen). Even aside from this major catastrophe within a distinguished career, Dafoe's supporting roles have not been especially rewarding, though he is never uninteresting. His role in The English Patient (Caravaggio) was greatly reduced in importance from the novel, the film concentrating on the central love story; Affliction (arguably the best film in which he has appeared in this period) gave him little to do; he accepted the role of the villain in Speed 2: Cruise Control, but even actors have to eat. His cameo in Cronenberg's eXistenZ (he is prominent in only one sequence) allows him to pass within a few minutes between the two extremes of his persona, from amiable nice guy to malicious villain, and one admires the subtlety with which the latter is hinted at in the former, the friendly smiles just a trifle strained. This leaves us with his two available major roles, in Tom & Viv and New Rose Hotel. It was a shock to find this actor, so often associated with crime movies and lowlife characters, cast as T.S. Eliot. The title Tom & Viv suggests equal status, but in fact it is really Amanda Richardson's film, dedicated to the memory of Vivienne Haigh-Wood and clearly concerned to express a feminist viewpoint. But Dafoe is superb, in a role far less showy than that of his co-star. The film tells us little about Eliot's poetry, ignoring its prominent sexual disgust, its antisemitism, and its occasional homophobia. Dafoe gives us a decent, troubled man who genuinely cares for his disturbed, passionate wife and acts responsibly within his own limitations, quite unable to see that her alleged insanity is a perfectly understandable response to her dull and unimaginative family and the stultifying upperclass British milieu that has created it. He says, near the end of the film, after Vivienne's commitment to a "home," "I love this family. I've always wanted to be a part of it," and the line as Dafoe delivers it carries great pathos, his entrapment subsequently visualized in the repeated image of his face behind the bars of the elevator "cage."

Reactions to New Rose Hotel will depend upon one's estimate of Abel Ferrara: the film is fully characteristic of his work, in its sense of human beings trapped within a thoroughly corrupt world, either trying (Dafoe) or not trying (Christopher Walken) to retain a little dignity and decency. Clearly the film was a very difficult commercial proposition: essentially a "modernist" art-house movie, formally and stylistically ambitious, constructed upon a basically elementary generic plot. It deserved far better treatment than it has received. It also contains Dafoe's finest performance in years, allowing him a wide range of expression. His love scenes with Asia Argento have a touching erotic tenderness, and he beautifully conveys his character's fundamental (if threatened) innocence. He is still able, in his forties, convincingly to project a boyish vulnerability.

—Robin Wood

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers Wood, Robin

Dafoe, Willem 1955–

views updated May 21 2018

DAFOE, Willem 1955–

PERSONAL

Original name, William Dafoe, Jr.; born July 22, 1955, in Appleton, WI; son of William Dafoe (a surgeon); mother, a nurse; children: (with Elizabeth LeCompte, a theatre company director) Jack. Education: Attended University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Avocational Interests: Yoga.

Addresses: Agent—Michelle Bohan, William Morris Agency, 151 El Camino Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Manager—Artists Independent Network, 270 Lafayette St., Suite 402, New York, NY 10012. Publicist—I/D Public Relations, 8409 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069.

Career: Actor, voice performer, and producer. Theatre X (experimental theatre group), Milwaukee, WI, performed on tour in the United States and Europe, 1975–76; Performance Group, New York City, member of company; Wooster Group, New York City, founding member of company, 1977—. Appeared in print advertisements and voice artist for commercials. Appeared in merchandise from the Spider–Man films.

Awards, Honors: Academy Award nomination and Independent Spirit Award nomination, both best supporting actor, 1987, for Platoon; Independent Spirit Award nomination, best supporting actor, 1991, for Wild at Heart; Sant Jordi Award, best foreign actor, 1995, for Light Sleeper; Screen Actors Guild Award nomination (with others), outstanding performance by a cast, 1997, for The English Patient; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and Phoenix Film Critics Society Award, both best supporting actor, President Award, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, outstanding creative performance, and Gran Angular Award, Catalonian International Film Festival, best actor, all 2000, Independent Spirit Award, best supporting actor, Golden Satellite Award, International Press Academy, best performance by a supporting actor in a comedy or musical, International Fantasy Film Award, Fantasporto, best actor, Saturn Award, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, best supporting actor in a motion picture, all 2001, Academy Award nomination, Golden Globe Award nomination, Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, Chicago Film Critics Association Award nomination, and Online Film Critics Society Award nomination, all best supporting actor, all 2001, all for Shadow of the Vampire; Camerimage Special Award, "immense contribution to the art of the film," 2002; Chicago Film Critics Association Award nomination, best supporting actor, 2003, for Auto Focus; MTV Movie Award nomination, best villain, 2003, for Spider–Man; Mexican MTV Movie Award nomination, "most divine miracle in a movie," 2004, for The Last Temptation of Christ.

CREDITS

Film Appearances:

(Uncredited) Extra, Heaven's Gate (also known as Johnson County Wars), United Artists, 1981.

Vance, The Loveless (also known as Breakdown), Mainline Releasing, 1982.

Second youth in phone booth, The Hunger, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer/United Artists, 1983.

Johnny Harte, Roadhouse 66, Atlantic, 1984.

Punk boyfriend, New York Nights, Bedford Entertainment, 1984.

Raven Shaddock, Streets of Fire, Universal/RKO Radio Pictures, 1984.

Himself, The Communists Are Comfortable (and Three Other Stories), 1984.

Eric "Rick" Masters, To Live and Die in L.A., Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer/United Artists, 1985.

O Panama, 1985.

Sergeant Elias Grodin, Platoon, Orion, 1986.

Agent Ward, Mississippi Burning, Orion, 1988.

Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Christ), The Last Temptation of Christ, Universal, 1988.

Sergeant first class Buck McGriff, Off Limits (also known as Saigon), Twentieth Century–Fox, 1988.

Charlie, Born on the Fourth of July, Universal, 1989.

Salamo Arouch, Triumph of the Spirit, Triumph, 1989.

Bobby Peru, Wild at Heart (also known as David Lynch's Wild at Heart), Samuel Goldwyn, 1990.

Hateful guard, Cry–Baby, Universal, 1990.

Himself, The Making of "Triumph of the Spirit," 1990.

Lieutenant commander Virgil "Tiger" Cole, Flight of the Intruder, Paramount, 1991.

Deputy sheriff Ray Dolezal, White Sands, Warner Bros., 1992.

John LeTour, Light Sleeper, Fine Line, 1992.

Himself, North on Evers, 1992.

Emit Flesti, Faraway, So Close! (also known as In weiter Ferne, so nah!), Sony Pictures Classics, 1993.

Frank Dulaney, Body of Evidence (also known as Deadly Evidence), Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer, 1993.

John Clark, Clear and Present Danger, Paramount, 1994.

T. S. "Tom" Eliot, Tom & Viv, Miramax, 1994.

The writer, The Night and the Moment (also known as La notte e il momento and La nuit et le moment), Miramax, 1994.

Axel Heyst, Victory, Miramax, 1995.

David Caravaggio, The English Patient, Miramax, 1996.

The electrician, Basquiat (also known as Build a Fort and Set It on Fire and Build a Fort, Set It on Fire), Miramax, 1996.

John Geiger, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Twentieth Century–Fox, 1997.

Rolfe Whitehouse, Affliction, Largo Entertainment, 1997.

Dr. Van Horn, Lulu on the Bridge, Trimark Pictures, 1998.

Narrator, What Is Yoga? (documentary), Mystic Fire Productions, 1998.

X, New Rose Hotel, Rose Releasing, 1998.

Conundrum, c. 1998.

Gas, eXistenZ, Dimension Films, 1999.

Donald Kimball, American Psycho, Lions Gate Films, 2000.

Father Ramirez, Bullfighter, Phaedra Cinema, 2000.

Max Schreck (Count Orlok), Shadow of the Vampire, Lions Gate Films, 2000.

Paul Smecker, The Boondock Saints, Indican Pictures, 2000.

Father Andre, Pavilion of Women (also known as Ting yuan li de nu ren), Universal, 2001.

Priest, Edges of the Lord (also known as Boze skrawki), Miramax, 2001.

John Carpenter, Auto Focus, Sony Pictures Classics, 2002.

Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Spider–Man, Columbia, 2002.

Barillo, Once upon a Time in Mexico, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2003.

Voice of Camel Cricket, Camel Cricket City (short film), 2003.

Voice of Gill, Finding Nemo (animated), Buena Vista, 2003.

Himself, Overnight (documentary), ThinkFilm, 2003.

Arnold "Arn" Mack, The Clearing, Twentieth Century–Fox, 2004.

Klaus Daimler, The Life Aquatic, Buena Vista, 2004.

Martin, The Reckoning (also known as Morality Play), Paramount, 2004.

Michael Copeland, Control, Lions Gate Films, 2004.

Murchison, Mr. Ripley's Return (also known as White on White), Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2004.

Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Spider–Man 2, Columbia, 2004.

Tabloid editor, The Aviator, Miramax/Warner Bros., 2004.

Himself, Rockets Redglare! (documentary), Small Planet Pictures, 2004.

George Deckert, XXX: State of the Union, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2005.

Grace's father, Manderlay, Trust Film Sales, 2005.

Film Work:

Coproducer, New Rose Hotel, Rose Releasing, 1998.

Television Appearances; Movies:

Earl Copen, Animal Factory, Cinemax, 2000.

Television Appearances; Specials:

(In archive footage) Raven Shaddock, Music Videos and Inside "Streets of Fire," 1984.

Narrator, Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (also known as Dear America), HBO, 1987.

Himself, The Making of "Speed 2: Cruise Control," 1997.

The Inside Reel: Digital Filmmaking, PBS, 2001.

Himself, Behind the Scenes: Spider–Man the Movie (also known as Behind the Ultimate Spin), 2002.

Himself, Spider–Mania, 2002.

Himself, Hollywood High, American Movie Classics, 2003.

Guest, Introducing Graham Norton, Comedy Central, 2004.

Narrator, Final Cut: The Making of Heaven's Gate and the Unmaking of a Studio (also known as Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of "Heaven's Gate"), Trio, 2004.

Television Appearances; Awards Presentations:

The 61st Annual Academy Awards Presentation, ABC, 1989.

Presenter, GQ Men of the Year Awards, VH1, 1998.

Presenter, The Seventh Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, TNT, 2001.

Himself, The 2001 IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards, Independent Film Channel, 2001.

Presenter, The 45th Annual Grammy Awards, CBS, 2003.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

Jeffrey, "Ghostwriter," The Hitchhiker, USA Network, 1985.

Himself, Fishing with John, Independent Film Channel, 1991.

Guest, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, NBC, 1992.

Voice of the commandant, "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson," The Simpsons (animated), Fox, 1997.

Guest, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, syndicated, 1997.

Inside the Actors Studio, Bravo, c. 1997.

Himself, The Directors: Martin Scorsese, Starz!, 2000.

Guest, "The English Patient," Page to Screen, 2002.

Guest, Festival Pass with Chris Gore, Starz!, 2002.

Guest, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC, 2002.

Guest, NY Graham Norton, 2004.

Stage Appearances:

Lieutenant Buchevski and first customer, Cop, Performance Group, Envelope Theatre, New York City, 1978.

Arthur, The Balcony, Performing Garage, New York City, 1979.

Colonel Lloyd Lud, North Atlantic, Wooster Group, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, 1985.

Miss Universal Happiness, Wooster Group, Performing Garage, 1985.

Yank, The Hairy Ape, Wooster Group, Performing Garage, 1996, then Selwyn Theatre, New York City, 1997.

Captain Chizzum, North Atlantic, Wooster Group, Performance Garage, 1999.

Theseus, To You, the Birdie!, Wooster Group, St. Ann's Warehouse Theatre, New York City, 2002.

With Wooster Group, appeared in Brace Up!, Emperor Jones, Hula, LSD … Just the High Points, Nayatt School, Point Judith, and The Road to Immortality.

Major Tours:

Yank, The Hairy Ape, Wooster Group, 1996.

With Theatre X, toured in Offending the Audience, Phaedre, and Razor Blades, U.S. and European cities.

RECORDINGS

Videos:

Himself, Location Production Footage: The Last Temptation of Christ, Universal, 1988.

The Making of "American Psycho," Lions Gate Films, 2000.

Himself and Sergeant Elias Grodin in archive footage, A Tour of the Inferno: Revisiting "Platoon," Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer/United Artists Home Entertainment, 2001.

Himself, Counterfeit World: Making "To Live and Die in L.A.," Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer Home Entertainment, 2003.

(In archive footage) El Mariachi: 10 Years Later, Blue Sands Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, The Anti–Hero's Journey (documentary), Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment, 2004.