Willem Dafoe Quotes About Character

Quotes about: Character

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Character, Suffering, Actors

  Interview with Steven Hyden, www.avclub.com. September 25, 2007.

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Character, Thinking, People

  Source: film.avclub.com

• 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

  Character, Play, Trying

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Adventure, Character, Mean

  Source: film.avclub.com

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Character, Cartoon, Want

  "From Jesus to Antichrist" by Laura Barton, www.theguardian.com. May 27, 2009.

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Character, People, Giving

  Source: film.avclub.com

• 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

  Character, Thinking, Roles

  Interview with Jonathan Romney, www.theguardian.com. November 8, 1998.

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Character, People, Important

  Interview with Steven Hyden, www.avclub.com. September 25, 2007.

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Character, Worry, Trying

  Interview with Steven Hyden, film.avclub.com. September 25, 2007.

• 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.

  Willem Dafoe

  Character, People, Giving

  Interview with Steven Hyden, www.avclub.com. September 25, 2007.

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