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Willem Dafoe ('Antichrist')

Willem Dafoe ('Antichrist')
Willem Dafoe is no stranger to controversy. In 1998 he upset more than a few people when he played Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation Of Christ. He's also taken on key parts in movies by iconic auteurs from Oliver Stone and David Lynch to Sam Raimi and David Cronenberg, while having time to appear in Mr Bean's Holiday. Ahead of the UK release of Lars Von Trier's shocking Antichrist, we spoke to Willem about the film, its director, and his defense of xXx 2.

What attracted you to the film?
"I knew Lars a little bit because I worked with him on Manderlay and I felt a connection with him. I called him up and he said he was working on this thing and sent me the script. I read it and I really liked it a lot. So I told him, enough that he said, 'Well why don't you do it?' And it was like that. I like the material, I like Lars a lot. I went crazy for the material, I thought it was really good. It's hard to find movies that have content about adult things."

Was Lars different to work with after his well-documented depression?
"Terrifically. Physically he was much shakier, he couldn't operate the camera anymore, which was a big deal, because he operated the camera a lot on Manderlay. He just seemed less fit and more fragile. But he was on it, and in the course of the movie he seemed to get stronger and stronger and now he's even stronger yet."

Did that fragility transfer into the movie?
"Only in that it created a bond between us and it made him a little more vulnerable and us a little stronger, in terms of the collaboration. You hear these crazy stories about how perverse he can be, but he really invited us to help him, and that's a powerful place to be when the guy is as smart as he is, as talented as he is and as committed to this material as he was. What Lars never gets enough credit for is that he's deeply sincere, and he would die if he heard me say that. But he's truly sincere in the respect that he cares and he puts everything into what he does."

Would you agree that Antichrist is a "horror film"?
"Not exactly. I think it uses the language of horror, but that creates a weird expectation. Horror films feel slightly different to this. We still deal with the content of the story and the relationship that's been set up, even as it gets a little crazier. It's a little more dreamlike. Horror films are usually about playing games with the audience. Cat and mouse, scare them, make them worry, give them titillation. This is more poetic, because some of the stuff is hard to account for, but it has a great smell, it has a great taste to me."

How did you feel with the reception the film got at Cannes?
"The premiere was fantastic, a dream screening. That doesn't get reported. What gets reported as the premiere was the press screening, and I feel a little like a schoolboy making that distinction. God knows it's hard to be a critic. They're watching all these movies, and a difficult, complex movie like this, from the get-go they know that in one and a half hours they've got to say how they feel about this thing. It's not that kind of movie. I think it lingers, it haunts, and if you have to decide how you feel about it immediately I think it's almost impossible to enjoy, because then its more extreme elements kind of separate out from it. I think with a little time and a more thoughtful evaluation I think the critics should respond to it."

Were you surprised that some of the more extreme scenes got past the censors?
"No because... we did worse! Nobody's putting a gun to anybody's head to see this. Going to the theatre is a voluntary act."

What was your first reaction when you read the script and found out your character got his genitals crushed?
"Practical! How are we going to do this? Whose testicles are we talking about? How soft is that piece of wood?"

Did you get to build a relationship with Charlotte before you started shooting?
"No. I kissed her the first time in front of the camera. I touched her the first time in front of the camera. We saw each other naked for the first time in front of the camera. It's like that. Lars set the trust up. He's very thoughtful and he's very smart, so that sets the tone. And it's good material. Charlotte knows why she's there, I know why I'm there. We like each other. We work together to do the thing. I feel very sentimental about it. I always feel sentimental about people come together 'for the greater good' kind of way, and that's what it felt like."

Could you ever see yourself in a Michael Bay or a McG movie?
"Those aren't usually the movies I go to, which tells you something, but I can't absolutely snub them. Also I think sometimes it's good to make some money, sometimes it's good to be in a movie that's widely seen, sometimes it's good to make a movie movie; entertainment. But I'm less secure with that kind of thing, because I don't feel as turned on. In those kind of movies it's hard for the hook to be the material. But I've made some movies that to me were interesting enough and people really didn't respond to them, because they had shallow roots."

Such as?
"A movie that's pretty much dismissed and reviled, something like xXx 2. I'm not here to defend the movie or anything, but the reasons for doing it were perfectly good for me. It was a great story! What a great idea - the brothers from the 'hood stop a coup d'etat because they can operate better in a free market system in a democracy than they can with a strong-armed military, that's kinky! So Michael Bay, McG, if that's the right thing, maybe, but probably not!"

Antichrist is released in the UK on July 24.

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