WILLEM DAFOE MOVIES MOVIE
WILLEM DAFOE MOVIES PLUS

Occasionally, DafoeвЂ™s creative spirit landed him in hot water, like the time he borrowed his high schoolвЂ™s video camera to shoot a documentary and got expelled for making what the principal called вЂњpornographyвЂќ (вЂњThere was a bare bottom in it,вЂќ Dafoe says). If he got a term paper assignment, heвЂ™d find a way to act it out in class instead of writing it.вЂќ I remember once when he was 10 or 12 years old, he got ahold of a gorilla costume and climbed the side of a building in downtown Appleton, like King Kong.вЂќ Adds brother Richard, 65, a commercial litigation attorney in Dallas who also attended the Santa Barbara ceremony, вЂњHe was always doing creative things. вЂњHe was always doing crazy stuff to create a stir. вЂњHe was always a performer,вЂќ says his brother Don, 67, a transplant surgeon in Laguna Beach who drove up to Santa Barbara for the film festival. вЂњNobody in my family noticed,вЂќ he remembers. He just wanted to feel what it was like to be confined in a small space for a long period of time, like the astronauts in the Gemini rockets on the news. Once, when he was 8 years old, he shut himself into a closet for two days. вЂњMy parents started out as Eisenhower Republicans,вЂќ he says, вЂњbut by the time I came around they had loosened up.вЂќ Luckily, he thrived on the chaos. DafoeвЂ™s dad was a doctor and his mom a nurse, and because they were seldom at home, he was raised mostly by his five sisters. He was the seventh of eight children, all crammed into an overstuffed colonial where there was almost zero adult supervision. As a teenager in Appleton, Wisconsin, he was called Bill, or sometimes Billy, and there was a period during his early childhood when his older brothers teased him with the nickname вЂњ BleeblobвЂќ (for reasons no family member will reveal but which they hint are hugely embarrassing). So he slouches into his chair on his hotel terrace, gives his gray beard a couple of tugs and, for a few of hours anyway, lets a stranger rummage in his laundry bag.ДЇor starters, his real name is not Willem. Still, disappearing isnвЂ™t exactly a winning strategy when youвЂ™re up for an Academy Award. He says it makes it easier to вЂњdisappear into roles.вЂќ Dafoe insists he doesnвЂ™t want to be a bigger star than he already is and prefers that nobody know about his offscreen life. Fans let him wash his underpants in peace at laundromats. Photographers donвЂ™t camp outside his home (or even know where it is). HeвЂ™s gotten plenty of nominations, and the critics adore him.

WILLEM DAFOE MOVIES MOVIE

Despite his prodigious output and near-ubiquitous onscreen presence during the past four decades, heвЂ™s never quite popped as a full-fledged movie star.

WILLEM DAFOE MOVIES PLUS

Over the past 37 years, Dafoe has racked up credits on more than 100 films, churning out two, three or sometimes even four or more a year (last year, he did six, a personal best, plus voiceover narrations on two documentaries).Д«ut hereвЂ™s the thing about Willem Dafoe. And thatвЂ™s just scratching the surface of his rГ©sumГ© - thereвЂ™s also his lesser-applauded performances in 1993вЂ™s Body of Evidence (in which Madonna dripped hot wax onto his naked body) and in Lars von TrierвЂ™s 2009 drama Antichrist (in which Charlotte Gainsbourg crushed his testicles), along with a slew of other roles big, small and occasionally completely overlooked. He shared a foxhole with Charlie Sheen in Oliver StoneвЂ™s 1986 Vietnam War epic Platoon (which got him his first Oscar nomination), wore 6-inch-long fingernails and a prosthetic pointy head to play silent film star Max Schreck in 2000вЂ™s Shadow of the Vampire (which got him his second) and zoomed around New York on a flying hoverboard as the Green Goblin in 2002вЂ™s Spider-Man (and its two sequels). He has played everybody from Jesus (in Martin ScorseseвЂ™s The Last Temptation of Christ) to a tropical fish (in Finding Nemo). In DafoeвЂ™s case, unique is putting it mildly. HeвЂ™s dressed in hipster casual - black jeans, white T-shirt and a scruffy graying beard (a remnant from his recent turn as Vincent Van Gogh in Julian SchnabelвЂ™s upcoming biopic, At EternityвЂ™s Gate) - but in a few hours heвЂ™ll spruce himself up, slip into a suit and step onto a stage to accept the Santa Barbara Film FestivalвЂ™s Vanguard Award, honoring what the program calls his вЂњunique contributions to film.вЂќ Today, for instance, the 62-year-old Oscar nominee - heвЂ™s up for best supporting actor for his role in The Florida Project, A24вЂ™s $2 million slice of life about kids from low-income families living in cheap motels near OrlandoвЂ™s Disney World - lounges on a shady terrace at a hotel overlooking downtown Santa Barbara, where heвЂ™s about to take another lap around the awards season circuit as it hurtles toward the finish line. Of course, what makes Dafoe different from most people - aside from enjoying laundry - is that in his life thereвЂ™s really no such thing as a typical day.