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" With theatre, you have to be ready for anything. "
Willem Dafoe
You
Theatre
Anything
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" Sometimes I say I feel more like a dancer than an actor, because there are things implied about being an actor that I don't really like. I feel more comfortable with the word 'performer'. I like being the thing. I like being the doer. There's a factualness to it. And then certain resonances happen out of how you apply yourself physically. "
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" I was watching 'Wild at Heart,' and I can honestly say I did nothing for that apart from show up! "
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" 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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" 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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" 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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" I have no doubt that if I met Bob Dylan, it would be disappointing - and annoying to him. But that's why I like Bob Dylan. "
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" The worst thing is to get involved with people who aren't passionate about what they're doing. "
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" I'm not attracted to naturalism, I'm not attracted to behavior, I'm attracted to dance. I'm attracted to gesture, I'm attracted to singing with your voice, as opposed to having a natural manner. I'm a theater actor first, so that probably influences a lot of my approach. And I think in many ways, naturalism has ruined movies. "
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" I'll never be able to really see a film that I'm in. "
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" 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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Look
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" My dad was a surgeon, my mom a nurse, and they were always out working. I had five sisters and a brother. They didn't care what I got up to. "
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Got
Mom
Surgeon
" I've never had any close male friends. The most important relationships in my life have always been with women. "
Willem Dafoe
Life
My Life
Women
" 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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" 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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" The best thing an actor can be is ready. Be flexible, be ready. "
Willem Dafoe
Ready
Best
Flexible
" I do know that I like to play characters that are sometimes a little on the outside - that's because it feels kind of romantic and sexier to me. I really think they are the people that we learn lessons from. "
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Know
Think
" Truth is, generally I like film festivals; somewhere at some level there's an exchange of ideas. "
Willem Dafoe
Festivals
Truth
Ideas
" 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
First
Work
Time
" You can be intuitive when you've got a more expansive role. You can get into the poetry of telling the story rather than just pushing buttons. "
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" In order to inhabit a character, you've got to embrace and empathise with them. "
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" 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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" Any actor who tells you that he makes choices, absolutely, is wrong. You find work and work finds you. "
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" When you work on anything, you want to find the range of impulses - which ones get portrayed is another question, but you want to have that complexity and that fullness, even if you're playing a cartoon character. "
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" 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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People
You
" 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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Cry
Talking
Touch
" 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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Problem
" 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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Me
Bad
Bad Guy
" 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
Hope
Success
Know
" I knew very little about 'Spider-Man'. I grew up more in the 'Superman' generation. 'Spider-Man' - I didn't know so much. But it is a really successful franchise, and I'm happy to be involved with it. "
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