Watching Willem Dafoe going through his IMDb credits is kind of funny. Considering how many movies this guy has been in it’s hard to know just how feels about every movie. It’s kind of disappointing really that Boondock Saints didn’t come up since it was one of his more memorable roles that a lot of people still hold onto. But really, he’s been around for so long and done so much that his IMDb page almost reads like a short story. He’s the kind of actor that off screen can be calm, composed, and just an all around nice guy, but onscreen he can become a maniac that looks like he’d suck your eyeballs through your nose with a straw.
Like every actor he’s got a few roles here and there that he gets a lot of heat for doing, but quite honestly the actor does need to pander to the audience at times for attention, but otherwise they need to focus on what makes them happy first and foremost. Like anything in the world acting is done for the individual, to validate their life, not to appease others. So to all those critics and keyboard cowboys that love to dish out the hate and unfair witticisms that are so plentiful on the internet, get over it and understand that actors are there to do what they love, not spit a bunch of garbage at the audience just because of what someone wants to see.
You can claim that Dafoe has played a lot of crazy characters, he does have the facial expressions for it after all, but he’s also played the kind of guy you’d like to have as a next door neighbor as well. He’s one of those guys that seems capable of throwing a switch in his head in order to turn from being absolutely mental to the most friendly guy you’d ever meet. That might make him seem like a rather strange person but really and truly it’s what makes him such a great actor. That ability to go from one mood to the next so quickly is something that a lot of people just can’t do on command, and actors that can do this are those that tend to be highly adaptable and can take on virtually any role that’s needed. They’re usually the ones that get labeled as being kind of ‘off’ or even crazy, but they’re also the ones that go down in history as being some of the greatest and even underrated performers in the world.
Trying to pin him down as one type of actor isn’t all that fair and it’s not really that possible. He’s whatever he needs to be for a given role and it’s worked so far. Forcing him into a metaphorical box is just as wrong as trying to contain an exotic bird that needs to fly. The fact that he doesn’t really conform to every standard of the industry is great since it allows him to give so much more to the audience.
