Willem Dafoe said a full masterclass on Thursday on the 31st Sarajevo film festival about his work with David Lynch, Martin Scorse and Oliver Stone, among others.
The star, on the other hand, dodged a question on US President Donald Trump. In an interview with Larry King at the birth of the first Trump administration, Dafoe had shared that the country “was not going in the right direction”. Asked Thursday if he always felt this way, he simply replied: “If you know something about me and you do it, it’s not a real question.”
There were many other subjects to discuss. “I don’t have this personality,” said Dafoe when he was asked if he could one day become a director. “I like to do things. I like someone to say what they see, and then I like to try to embody it. “I like to do things” and embody characters. … This defies your perceptions, your prejudices. ” As an actor, “you can act quite mysteriously, even irresponsible sometimes,” he added. “It’s a great way to play with the test of your limits.”
Asked to play the famous death scene in Oliver Stone SectionDafoe said: “It’s a moving scene”, renting music, edition and other collaborative works behind the scenes. “The way it was built was very simple. It was not really repeated,” recalls Dafoe. “I had a very simple task: running for my life. … and also I make a ball on me. So it’s a pure technical task. It’s like an athlete flowing from here to there. I don’t think about interpreting anything. I don’t think about the effect. I simply try to do so seriously and clearly and also directly this action. ”
Discuss the star in Martin Scorsese’s The last temptation of Christ“I thought it was strange,” he recalls. By learning more about his inspirations and concentrations, he agreed to play the role.
“It’s a beautiful role, because [it’s about] The human part of Jesus, and it is a guy who rejects this responsibility which was given to him, and it was an interesting place, and it is one of my favorite roles, I suppose, because it was so demanding, because I was almost with each plan, believe it or not, there was a very low budget film.
“You are not the Jesus Christ. You are a Jesus Christ,” he said, explaining his approach to the role. The biggest challenge was “to free myself from all images and expectations” and for Jesus Christ.
Dafoe also said he was “shocked” from the film’s reaction. “Jesus rejects his work and lives like a normal man. He has children, he has sex. It was too scandalous for people, so even without seeing the film, there were huge protests against her,” recalls the star. “And then it turned into a very strange thing about the Jews in Hollywood. It has become an anti -Semitic thing, and it made snowball. And the perception is that it is the Catholic Church. It was really not the Catholic Church. It is the fundamental law in America that started this, then it spread to various places.”
His reaction? “I was shocked, because at a time of super-violent films and porn and all kinds of films, it was a film that was trying to address the nature of faith,” said Dafoe. “Yeah, it was a brake, because it was a film in which I was very invested, in my mind. So that really prevented it from being widely distributed.”
Marvel has never had distribution problems. “The original Spider It was very fun because in a scene, he could go from very dramatic to very comical, which is very difficult to do, “recalls Dafoe.” It has a great sense of humor, but it is not light. “”
He also shared that he liked “doing the action stuff”. For the original Spider“You still use sons,” said Dafoe. “There was less CGI, and it was fun because it’s athletic.”
The star is in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina to receive the honorary heart of Sarajevo, “in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the art of cinema, and the screen The birthday partyy. Stellan Skarsgard and Ray Winstone also received the honor at the festival this year.
Dafoe, which then has two films in Venice (Kent Jones’ Late glory and Gastón Solnicki The blower) and one in Toronto (Man in my basementThe first feature by Nadia Latif) was welcomed by an excited ovation and excited waves of the Masterclass crowd.
Dafoe Last was at Sarajevo Fest in 2000 with Steve Buscemi Animal plant. “I knew him when he was a firefighter before being an actor,” said the star about Buscemi. Also at the festival, he spent time with Mike Leigh, “who is a very charming guy once you know him,” said Dafoe to laugh.
A financial issue has also arisen. Money “is always a consideration”, but “I never remember what I am paid” and that I never “pursue” money, the actor stressed when he was asked about the role of money.
Dafoe also shared an anecdote on her father. “I loved him very much, but he was quite conservative”, and he said once to Dafoe: “I like this film where you play the rapist”, which means that David Lynch Wilderness. “It’s probably funny, because my sweet father, you know, gets a kick from me playing a really brutal criminal.”
How was Lynch work? “He wanted me to go to a dentist and get dental prostheses” because his character Bobby Peru has rotten teeth, recalls Dafoe. “The actors put limits. I thought they would color them, but no, he wanted me to go to the dentist and take dental prostheses, dental prostheses that passed my teeth. I went to have them, and the second I put them in my mouth, I could not close my mouth.… You feel different. ”
But Dafoe allowed it to have an impact on the way he described the character. “It has become a trigger,” he said. “It was such a lesson. Sometimes an external thing really opens something in your imagination that completes the character. And it was the beautiful thing between writing and … the situation. All these things met, and I was there to receive it. And I don’t want to seem too scary, but … it’s a fine example of sometimes when you need to do research or well-being to do. A bit sent me on the way.
The film was the only collaboration with the legendary director who died earlier this year. “David Lynch was very unconventional. He was an artist,” said Dafoe. “He would not direct you conventionally. Very easy! Sometimes he would say very abstract things, like “Willem, you know, when you start this, you are a bit like green, then you become brown”. I was good with that.
Having made more than 150 films in his career, “Willem Dafoe is respected internationally for bringing versatility, audacity and dare to some of the most emblematic films of our time,” said Sarajevo organizers when they reveal it as a recipient of honor.
Jovan Marjanović, director of Sarajevo Fest, praised Dafoe by recently revealing his honor. “His work is something to which each actor aspires. Each time he walks in front of the camera, he demonstrates that he is a real master of his profession,” he said. “Whether it is playing in a Hollywood blockbuster or an independent film on a small budget, its characters are always complex, emotional and unforgettable.”
Dafoe received four Oscar nominations and won two independent Spirit, the Venice Festival Volpi Cup and a Berlinale Honorary Golden Bear for life for life.
The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival takes place until Friday August 22.
