Willem Dafoe Quotes

With theatre, you have to be ready for anything. — Willem Dafoe

I'm a task-oriented actor. A pretender. And I try to invent my process anew each time I make a new project. So I frown on any method. — Willem Dafoe

Celebrity is okay as long as you know it's not about you. — Willem Dafoe

The director's very important to me, particularly when the director has a recognizable style. — Willem Dafoe

Each of the actors is quite different, but they're all living in the same world. — Willem Dafoe

Turn off the sound in a movie, and if you can tell what's going on, the movie should work. — Willem Dafoe

Corruption is something you face all the time. Avoid it. — Willem Dafoe

In my experience, sometimes a movie just hits at the wrong time, gets the wrong press, or gets the wrong representation, and it gets misunderstood. — Willem Dafoe

The truth is, if you're around long enough, you have a story about everyone. But it's best to keep your mouth shut sometimes. — Willem Dafoe

Film is fragmented and gets into lots of other people's hands. There are a lot of pleasures that theatre gives me. You get to perform uninterrupted. — Willem Dafoe

Action breeds inspiration more than inspiration breeds action. — Willem Dafoe

You have to lose yourself to find yourself. — Willem Dafoe

I've been in very few flat-out comedies. But I feel like I've always made comedies. — Willem Dafoe

I don't think people are interested in my personal life. I've never had a Hollywood life. I've always been a worker. — Willem Dafoe

I want to work with people who are good at what they do, and people who are passionate. — Willem Dafoe

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. — Willem Dafoe

Willem Dafoe is a shithead. — Doug Benson

There's a real wisdom to not saying a thing. — Willem Dafoe

My dad was a surgeon, my mom a nurse, and they were always out working. I had five sisters and a brother. They didn't care what I got up to. — Willem Dafoe

It's too easy to trivialize people. The Internet does it all the time. — Willem Dafoe

I do want to be in mainstream movies that are going to be seen. I suppose it satisfies the showbiz side of me. — Willem Dafoe

If you put Willem Dafoe, Liam Neeson and James Woods in a room together, there wouldn't be room for anyone else. — Dana Delany

Weirdness is not my game. I'm just a square boy from Wisconsin. — Willem Dafoe

I have no doubt that if I met Bob Dylan, it would be disappointing - and annoying to him. But that's why I like Bob Dylan. — Willem Dafoe

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

I think back story can help guide your choices, but when you're playing a scene, you're not making choices; you're just intuitive. — Willem Dafoe

I was watching 'Wild at Heart,' and I can honestly say I did nothing for that apart from show up! — Willem Dafoe

You can be intuitive when you've got a more expansive role. You can get into the poetry of telling the story rather than just pushing buttons. — Willem Dafoe

Any actor who tells you that he makes choices, absolutely, is wrong. You find work and work finds you. — Willem Dafoe

I guess they often cast me as the bad guy, because I'm not, er, conventional looking. I look sort of violent. I'm the odd one out, the outsider. — Willem Dafoe

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

The best thing an actor can be is ready. Be flexible, be ready. — Willem Dafoe

Truth is, generally I like film festivals; somewhere at some level there's an exchange of ideas. — Willem Dafoe

Emotionally men and women are different, but only as a result of the physical differences. It all comes back to our bodies. — Willem Dafoe

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

I'll never be able to really see a film that I'm in. — Willem Dafoe

I don't think people want to see me as a regular guy; besides, I'm a regular guy in real life. I guess I just want to be reckless in my work. — Willem Dafoe

When I was a kid I was very interested in the idea of the will, finding out what you're capable of. I liked those kind of challenges. — Willem Dafoe

Basically, when I hear the words 'family drama,' I run in the opposite direction. — Willem Dafoe

In order to inhabit a character, you've got to embrace and empathise with them. — Willem Dafoe

Let's hope I never end up on a deserted island, because I could never make a decision on which three CDs to take with me. — Willem Dafoe

The worst thing is to get involved with people who aren't passionate about what they're doing. — Willem Dafoe

I'm no different to anyone else; I want people to like me. I just don't particularly want them to understand me. — Willem Dafoe

It's no fun for an actor to keep repeating what you did before. It's always changing. I'm changing. The target keeps moving. That's the beauty of it. — Willem Dafoe

I love theaters. I love the event of going there and seeing a movie with a lot of people. I like the community coming around the story. — Willem Dafoe

I am confident only when I am constantly in motion. Between projects, the doubt creeps in. — Willem Dafoe

I never act. I simply bring out the real animal that's in me. — Willem Dafoe

All the time, as an actor, you want to be asking what's next and where things are going. If you're not asking those questions, you're not growing. — Willem Dafoe

I'm learning in my old age that the only thing you can do to keep your sanity is to stay in the moment. — Willem Dafoe

Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to. — Willem Dafoe

Socially, I like the idea of sitting in a theater with a bunch of people. — Willem Dafoe

I've never had any close male friends. The most important relationships in my life have always been with women. — Willem Dafoe

Willem Dafoe and I are actually the same person. — Denis Leary