Willem Dafoe Goes Inside His Astonishing Performances

Isolation is something that’s come up throughout your career, in movies like “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “The Lighthouse,” and of course this movie, “Inside.” These characters get disconnected from the outside world, and then they go mad to some degree. What attracts you to these projects?

I like these characters in extreme situations because they ask questions of themselves. When I apply myself to pretending those things, I ask questions of myself. For example, I don’t think this character [in “Inside”] is going mad; I think he’s been forced to look inside, he’s forced to deal with himself. I’m a firm believer [that] one of the things we have to do in life is we have to get our house in order. We got to be at peace with ourselves before we can be useful to anyone else. These characters are all searching for something and they’re all questioning something, and I like that because when you approach those characters in your imagination, it also has an effect on you.

Is this a role that you could have performed when you were younger since it is so isolated? Or does it represent your growth as an actor?

That’s interesting. When I was younger, I think it would’ve meant less because [when] it’s a younger man trapped in that situation, it feels very different. As an older man now, [he has a] relationship to art and [a] relationship to the luxury he’s had a lot of his life, so his station is kind of fixed, where a younger man is just beginning his adult life. So it’s very different. I think I’m the right age to play it now. I think it wouldn’t make so much sense if I was younger.

Isolation is something that’s come up throughout your career, in movies like “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “The Lighthouse,” and of course this movie, “Inside.” These characters get disconnected from the outside world, and then they go mad to some degree. What attracts you to these projects?

I like these characters in extreme situations because they ask questions of themselves. When I apply myself to pretending those things, I ask questions of myself. For example, I don’t think this character [in “Inside”] is going mad; I think he’s been forced to look inside, he’s forced to deal with himself. I’m a firm believer [that] one of the things we have to do in life is we have to get our house in order. We got to be at peace with ourselves before we can be useful to anyone else. These characters are all searching for something and they’re all questioning something, and I like that because when you approach those characters in your imagination, it also has an effect on you.

Is this a role that you could have performed when you were younger since it is so isolated? Or does it represent your growth as an actor?

That’s interesting. When I was younger, I think it would’ve meant less because [when] it’s a younger man trapped in that situation, it feels very different. As an older man now, [he has a] relationship to art and [a] relationship to the luxury he’s had a lot of his life, so his station is kind of fixed, where a younger man is just beginning his adult life. So it’s very different. I think I’m the right age to play it now. I think it wouldn’t make so much sense if I was younger.