Dafoe tanned as an actor in New York in the mid -70s, after moving from Wisconsin at 21."New York was in a terrible situation," he says, "it was a violent city, it was a corrupt city, but for a young man it was a very exciting place".He related to an artistic group and began to make avant -garde theater with a company called The Wooster Group.He says that those first years "transformed", since I set out improvised shows that highlighted the physical: "I felt very excited and I woke up the desire to be an artist of some kind.The most important thing he learned at that time was "to address things through action, to do, from task -oriented action, not as much as an interpreter, not as much as an emotional being that is there to guide the public inThe trip, but to have an experience ".
When Dafoe talks about his action process, he uses the word "contact" a lot.It usually refer to the touch of a struggle, or the proximity to the process and material.But sometimes it is more literal.When he was rolling the lighthouse, Robert Eggers' psychological fantasy on two straylight.You are living an experience.There are certain things that you cannot imitate, you know, the redness of the skin, when you are out with a brutal time, the way you feel towards a hot stove when you are freezing all day ".
He says he likes to "become a creature" for the directors with whom he works."I like someone to do something for him," he says, "and that frees you from a kind of illusion and a certain egocentric vision.But if you have a good relationship with that person, and puts you in a situation that pushes you, you will learn something ".
The director of No Way Home, Jon Watts, understands it: "The character [of the green goblore] had already created with Sam Raimi, so he knew the crazy places he was willing to arrive.But see it really pass to two meters from you?Once I surrounded a project with two wolves in a small New York apartment.There were times when I felt like that ".
The external elements that influence these shootings end up making these projects feel more real?"Real is a curious word, because I have done very artificial things, which I really enjoy.It's about contact ".There is again.He is not talking directly about no Way Home, but he could well do it: "It's about the world from falling and doing something that speaks for himself, and that he does not point to anything else".
Although it is clear that he feels a lot.For example, the last temptation of Christ, by Martin Scorsese, who was filmed for 58 days in the dry heat of a Moroccan desert in 1987: "When I finished, I felt exhausted.And that is a pleasant feeling.It's nice when you do what you have to do, not what you want to do.Because that holds you ".
