I don’t think people want to see me as a regular guy; besides, I’m a regular guy in real life. I guess I just want to be reckless in my work. – Willem Dafoe
It’s true in the beginning I started playing villains, and I think that’s pretty clear, because if you don’t conventionally look a certain way and you’ve got a certain kind of presence when you’re young, then what’s available to you is character roles, and the best character roles when you’re young tend to be villains. – Willem Dafoe
I set myself challenges every time I work. Ideally, I approach everything as though it’s the first time – with a beginner’s mind and an amateur’s love. – Willem Dafoe
I am confident only when I am constantly in motion. Between projects, the doubt creeps in. – Willem Dafoe
Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to. – Willem Dafoe
I think on some level, you do your best things when you’re a little off-balance, a little scared. You’ve got to work from mystery, from wonder, from not knowing. – Willem Dafoe
I was born William. My father was William. I came from a big family, I hated being called Billy. Willem’s a nickname; it’s a Dutch name, very common in the Netherlands. – Willem Dafoe
The bad things about theatre get balanced by the good things in film and vice versa. So to tell you the truth, I love it when I can go back and forth – it feeds different parts of you and exercises different muscles. – Willem Dafoe
Sometimes I think women are lucky because they can develop in ways men can’t. The old-boy network may be oppressive to women, but it actually stunts men in terms of personal growth. – Willem Dafoe
In films you do a scene, you play around with it and unless you’re doing a lot of reshooting, which no one has the luxury to do, you deal with the problem for a day and then you move on. On some level, it never allows you to go very deep into what performing is about. – Willem Dafoe
When I give over to somebody’s vision rather than have an idea of what I need to do, it takes me to places I wouldn’t have got to by myself. I’m always attracted to a strong director. – Willem Dafoe
One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else’s shoes. And when I look at the roles I’ve played, I’m kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I’ve had and the different things I’ve learned. – Willem Dafoe
I don’t have a preference between theatre and film; I like to do both. But I will say that there’s something about theatre that is more nourishing and sustaining than film ever can be. – Willem Dafoe
I wish to Christ I could make up a really great lie. Sometimes, after an interview, I say to myself, ‘Man, you were so honest – can’t you have some fun? Can’t you do some really down and dirty lying?’ But the puritan in me thinks that if I tell a lie, I’ll be punished. – Willem Dafoe
I do want to be in mainstream movies that are going to be seen. I suppose it satisfies the showbiz side of me. – Willem Dafoe
I love Sam Neill. The thing that I always say about him, and I think it’s true, is he’s so dry. When he’s serious, I think he’s joking; when he’s joking, I think he’s serious. – Willem Dafoe
In my experience, sometimes a movie just hits at the wrong time, gets the wrong press, or gets the wrong representation, and it gets misunderstood. – Willem Dafoe
Turn off the sound in a movie, and if you can tell what’s going on, the movie should work. – Willem Dafoe
Any actor who tells you that he makes choices, absolutely, is wrong. You find work and work finds you. – Willem Dafoe
A lot of critics are lazy. They don’t want to look closely and analyze something for what it is. They take a quick first impression and then rush to compare it to something they’ve seen before. – Willem Dafoe
The Midwest isn’t somewhere you mix with those from the performing arts. But my mum and dad would go off to Chicago every so often to see shows. They would bring back the albums and the movies, those little eight metres, and we would all watch. I think that was when I fell in love with acting. – Willem Dafoe
I’m an optimist. I hope if a movie’s good that it will be a success, but as we know, that’s not always true, just because of popular taste, advertising, distribution patterns – there’s lots of reasons. – Willem Dafoe
When I was a kid I was very interested in the idea of the will, finding out what you’re capable of. I liked those kind of challenges. – Willem Dafoe
I try to do as many of my own stunts as possible. If you keep on taking yourself out of the role you play, you lose the thread of the character. – Willem Dafoe
I’m no different to anyone else; I want people to like me. I just don’t particularly want them to understand me. – Willem Dafoe
