When Willem Dafoe moved from Wisconsin to New York City in the 1970s to became an actor, he was enchanted by the myth of the tortured artist.
“I thought you had to have experiences—particularly difficult ones and hard ones—to earn the right to have a view,” says Dafoe, who was raised in a comfortable household with a surgeon father, a nurse mother, and many siblings. “Theres a romance to poverty if you come from the middle class.” So in those early days in Manhattan, shortly after Dafoe dropped out of college, he said, “I was perfectly happy with having nothing. I had probably 200 bucks in my pocket and was basically couch surfing . . . I didnt really have any skills, and I kind of enjoyed it—because at that point in my life, it felt like a very real existence. I wasnt chasing the brass ring. I was making my own way. I was seeing how I felt about things.”
Fast-forward 43 years and three Oscar nominations (Platoon, Shadow of the Vampire, and The Florida Project), and Dafoe had the opportunity to channel Vincent van Gogh, “the poster boy for the tortured artist,” in Julian Schnabels biopic At Eternitys Gate, out in theaters Friday. For the role, Dafoe learned how to paint, studied van Goghs artwork, and read the artists letters. Along with the filmmaking crew, he also traveled to the actual French community where van Gogh lived. Dafoe stood on the same ground the painter stood on, and gazed out at the same vistas.
“Some of these landscapes still exist,” explains Dafoe. “Its not like in Auvers-sur-Oise theyve got McDonalds. The field next to where hes buried, its quite pristine and preserved. So it was thrilling to be able to fill it with ghosts like that, to be in those places, and to learn these things that challenged and opened your eyes, woke you up, stimulated the imagination.”
It was only after channeling van Gogh and gazing out from the tortured artists literal perspective that Dafoe realized something. By mythologizing van Goghs struggles and tortured psyche, we are missing the point of the painter. “Youre kind of cheating the fact that he was very productive, and his work endures. And I think thats worth something,” he said.
Oftentimes, filmmakers struggle to show the artists creative process—how a masterpiece manifests in the imagination and is transferred to canvas. But At Eternitys Gate, a passion project of Schnabels—himself a painter—attempts to plunge audiences into van Goghs frenzied psyche itself, courtesy of handheld cameras capturing the artists point of view as he looks dizzily across lush landscapes. The immersive film gave Dafoe a more sophisticated take on his teenage belief.
“Sometimes, what looks like suffering can reap very big benefits, because suffering is sometimes about not being content or trying to investigate a kind of dissatisfaction, or trying to find yourself, trying to make yourself whole,” he said. “Its a spiritual impulse, I think, as well. To deal with this [dissatisfaction] is such a huge part of being human.”
Though Dafoe may have rid himself of the romanticism of a struggling artist, the actor is still as intense as he was in those early days. And because he is the kind of creature who throws himself fully into roles or hobbies—no half measures—he believes he needs to put down his paintbrush now: “When I do something, I do it pretty full-on. So to be a casual painter, Im not sure I could do it. Like a lot of roles, sometimes you learn something, and it transforms you and can be very important to you. But when the situation that allows that transformation to happen goes away, the lessons and certain impressions stay with you intuitively. Its kind of like the character goes back to where he came from.”
Dafoe has flung himself into the bodies and minds of over 100 characters, from psychopathic villains to Jesus Christ. Given his varied résumé, I asked the actor if he has a great white whale of a role hes still searching for.
“Its funny you say white whale, because Moby Dick is a story that deserves to be done again,” said Dafoe. “Do you think Im too short to play Ahab?”
Dafoe usually wouldnt answer this question, he added, because he likes the mystery of untangling a role: “If I know what the character is, I dont want to play it, because I am tainted by too many expectations.”
“But you caught me at a weak moment,” he chuckled. “You said white whale, and I took the bait. You harpooned me.”
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Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Julie MillerJulie Miller is a Senior Hollywood writer for Vanity Fairs website.
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