Best 88 quotes of Willem Dafoe on MyQuotes

Willem Dafoe

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    As you get older, you suffer fools less easily. That's why there's all those cranky character actors. I'm an exception. I'm a sweetheart.

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    Willem Dafoe

    Basically, when I hear the words 'family drama' I run in the opposite direction.

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    Willem Dafoe

    Central to being an actor is pretending, and the adventure of it all. That's why you become a junkie for different kinds of situations.

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    Willem Dafoe

    Emotionally men and women are different, but only as a result of the physical differences. It all comes back to our bodies.

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    Willem Dafoe

    Film is an editor's medium. You can create very good raw material and they can make it horrible, or you can do not so well and they can make it beautiful. You don't really know.

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    Willem Dafoe

    Film is fragmented and gets into lots of other people's hands. There are a lot of pleasures that theatre gives me. You get to perform uninterrupted.

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    Willem Dafoe

    Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I am confident only when I am constantly in motion. Between projects, the doubt creeps in.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I aspire to be an instrument of the director. I'm happiest like that. The stronger the director, the more I'm willing to give them.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I aspire to be an instrument of the director. I'm happiest like that. The stronger the director, the more I'm willing to give them. It's not just about admiration for their films, it's how they deal with you, and whether they get you or the way you work. If they don't, you better adjust your way of working to suit them. I want to work with people who are good at what they do, and people who are passionate. As you get older, you suffer fools less easily. That's why there's all those cranky character actors. I'm an exception. I'm a sweetheart.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I don't think people are interested in my personal life. I've never had a Hollywood life. I've always been a worker.

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    Willem Dafoe

    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I don't want people to know anything about me, because that's not important. I'm more interested in the me that takes shape through the characters.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I don't worry so much about the audience. I want them very much to be involved and enjoy the movie, but I try to just inhabit the character in a full way, where I can create a personal stake.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I feel like it's important to be flexible, particularly when I'm coming in late in the game and I'm connective tissue in the story. I'm not at the very center. It's important for me to have a certain kind of flexibility and try to help people do what they need to do.

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    Willem Dafoe

    If you get stuck and it feels a little stiff, then you do have to mess it up to find it. But other times it's really written and you just stick to your guns and do it as elegantly and as concentrated and as committed as you can.

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    Willem Dafoe

    If you know what it is before you even start, it's not as interesting. Central to being an actor is pretending, and the adventure of it all. That's why you become a junkie for different kinds of situations. I try to attach myself to people who really inspire me, and directors who are really passionate. That way, I can give myself more fully and trust the impulse behind why the film is being made, and I can be a little more irresponsible in finding out what the character is. I have to worry less about what the character means if I trust the director.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I guess they often cast me as the bad guy, because I'm not, er, conventional looking. I look sort of violent. I'm the odd one out, the outsider.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I have some sort of affinity for compulsive behavior. The most interesting stories come up from the people on the outside. They don't waste energy marching to the same drummer most of us do. It gives us an opportunity to look at things in a different way, which is the purest thing cinema can do.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I have some sort of affinity for compulsive behavior. The most interesting stories come up from the people on the outside.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I like the idea of sitting in a theater with a bunch of people. With technology now, people are getting more and more isolated. I like the community coming around the story. You don't have that with a DVD. People go home, they're tired from work, they can turn it off. It doesn't make you commit the same way, if you can control the movie. More difficult movies, it's too easy to turn them off. All the time, I see movies I know if I had seen it on DVD, I wouldn't have hung with it. If you see it on the screen, you hang with it and it pays off better than a movie you can easily sit through on DVD.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I like to work with people of different cultures, different points of view. But yeah, I feel much more comfortable. That's the problem I sometimes have with going to Hollywood. I feel like they don't share the same values as I do. They aren't interested in the same things. It's not always true, but sometimes, I feel it deeply, because as an industry, they celebrate things that I'm less interested in, and it's all about the business.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I love doing action and stuff; the problem is usually action movies are not that interesting. Also as I get older I feel like there's less opportunities for me.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I love theaters. I love the event of going there and seeing a movie with a lot of people. I like the community coming around the story.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I'm an optimist. I hope if a movie's good that it will be a success, but that's not always true, just because of popular taste or any other reasons. When something doesn't do better than it deserves to in your mind, it's pretty transparent - you usually know why. Is that a comfort? Yes, because it's logical. Does it make you happy? No, because if you think a movie is beautiful or interesting, you want to share it. Sometimes you make very interesting movies that aren't meant for everybody. But this is a capitalist society, so everything conspires to put value on whether it sells or not.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I'm a task-oriented actor. A pretender. And I try to invent my process anew each time I make a new project. So I frown on any method.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I'm learning in my old age that the only thing you can do to keep your sanity is to stay in the moment.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I'm more interested in talking about what I do. And I don't think people are interested in my personal life. I've never had a Hollywood life. I've always been a worker. But it's true: If you know something about a person outside of the movie that is really repulsive to you, it's hard to shake. So I prefer to do my speaking through the work. I don't want people to know anything about me, because that's not important. I'm more interested in the me that takes shape through these characters. The other stuff is personal and too easy to trivialize out of context.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I'm never in Hollywood! I'm a theatre actor that lives in New York. I'm very seldom in Los Angeles. I don't dislike LA, I just don't think it's a very healthy place for me to be all the time. When I'm shooting a movie there and am working I'm perfectly happy. But when I'm not working or engaged in something it's a place that I wouldn't live.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I'm one of those people who when I go over a bridge, I want to jump. It's just this intense tickle in the back of my throat. It's like I'm on the verge the whole time I'm walking over that bridge, and I'm not going to get a release until I jump.

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    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.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I prefer shooting on location, just because it always helps you. You go some place, you put your life on hold even more than when you've settled in some place. You can make a new life so it opens yourself up to the make-believe and the imagination in a way when you aren't burdened by things that remind you of your life all the time.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I pride myself on being fairly polite on a set so it's kind of a guilty pleasure to poke others on the set.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I think, as I've gotten older, I've been able to be more reckless with my choices, because practically speaking, you get less careful. Your choices become more instinctive, and you feel like if you make a mistake, it won't destroy you.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    It makes me laugh when I hear a guy talking about being in touch with his feminine side. But I gravitate towards women, I identify with them. And I do cry very easily, more and more as I get older.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I try to attach myself to people who really inspire me, and directors who are really passionate. That way, I can give myself more fully and trust the impulse behind why the film is being made, and I can be a little more irresponsible in finding out what the character is.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    It's fair to say that if you have a lot of experience, your power is greater. You have more of an opportunity to roll up your sleeves with younger directors.

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    Willem Dafoe

    It's no fun for an actor to keep repeating what you did before. It's always changing. I'm changing. The target keeps moving. That's the beauty of it.

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    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.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I've been in very few flat-out comedies. But I feel like I've always made comedies.

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    Willem Dafoe

    I've never had any close male friends. The most important relationships in my life have always been with women.