Berlinale 2018: Willem Dafoe receives Honorary Golden Bear
Jochen Kürten jt
February 20, 2018
From a comic book villain to Jesus, Willem Dafoe has portrayed every possible role during his career. With 100 movies in his filmography and counting, the Berlinale awards the American actor an honorary prize.
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Willem Dafoe's unforgettable roles
He is one of the most versatile actors of international cinema. As the leading man receives an Honorary Golden Bear at the 2018 Berlinale, we look back at the movies that made him a star.
Image: Imago/ZUMA Press
Not your regular Hollywood actor
Dafoe is not an American blockbuster celebrity. Although he has played in a few commercial flicks, he is usually cast in daring productions by visionary directors. Such movies are naturally a focus of the Berlinale, so it comes as no surprise that Dafoe is a regular guest at the film festival (here in 2014, for Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel") and even served as a jury member in 2007.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
'To Live and Die in L.A.'
The epic western film "Heaven's Gate" from 1980 was to be Dafoe's silver screen debut — until he was edited out. It was anyway one of the biggest disasters in film history. But the negative reviews didn't hurt Dafoe's career. After a string of minor roles, he scored big with 1985's political thriller, "To Live and Die in L.A." The film is screened at this year's Berlinale in Dafoe's honor.
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Finally an Oscar nomination
Dafoe's real breakthrough came just a year later when he starred in Oliver Stone's critically-acclaimed movie "Platoon." Portraying an American sergeant who has been serving in Southeast Asia for many years, his performance was so convincing that he was nominated for an Academy Award. However, he lost out to Michael Caine for the award for best supporting actor Oscar.
As Dafoe is best-known for playing ruthless villains, many were surprised when he turned up in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" as the one and only Jesus Christ himself. The controversial 1988 film, which drew protests from Catholics the world over, hit cinemas just a few months after the action movie "Off Limits," in which Dafoe plays a military policeman.
Image: Universal City Studios
When America was at war with itself
In 1988, Dafoe was everywhere, the actor having also starred in "Mississippi Burning," a film by British director Alan Parker that received 7 Oscar nominations. Dafoe plays a young FBI agent in the 1960s who comes to a small town in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of civil rights activists before becoming entangled in deep racism and a far-reaching conspiracy.
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Dafoe as a 'German vampire'
Unfortunately, the 1990s were not as fruitful for the American actor. He was twice nominated for a worst performance Golden Raspberry for his roles in "Body of Evidence" and "Speed 2: Cruise Control." Dafoe broke the curse in 2000 when he excelled as German silent film actor, Max Schreck, in "Shadow of the Vampires" — for which he received his second Oscar nomination.
Image: Deutsche Kinemathek
The workhorse of international cinema
Dafoe is known for shooting two, three or more films a year, usually in collaboration with leading American and European directors. The early 2000s were no exception. Among his renowned roles was the charismatic seducer John Carpenter in Paul Schrader's study of sex addiction and hedonism, "Auto Focus" (2002).
Image: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
He can also do funny!
At the beginning of the new millennium, Dafoe took part in a series of commercially successful and well-received blockbusters. First, he appeared as Green Goblin in the 2002 "Spider-Man" movie, and then portrayed a quirky German in Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" from 2004, a film in which he showcased his comedic qualities.
No stranger to controversy
Dafoe is so popular in Europe that it is easy to forget he is an American actor. His appearance and diction have made him the favorite of several European directors such as Lars von Trier, who cast him and Charlotte Gainsbourg in the scandalous psychological thriller "Antichrist" from 2009. Numerous violent sex scenes in the Danish director's film sparked heated debates.
Image: Christian Geisnaes
When an actor becomes a director
Willem Dafoe is renowned for his edgy screen presence in dramatic roles, but his sensitive side comes out in films like Abel Ferrara's "Pasolini" from 2014, the actor portraying the legendary Italian director in his final days. "Dafoe bears an uncanny resemblance to his subject as he drifts through a lovingly realised world of beige interiors and cruisy exteriors," wrote the Guardian.
Image: Capricci/Urania Pictures/Dublin Films/Arte France Cinema
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Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Wes Anderson, Alan Parker, David Lynch, Lars von Trier — the list of directors Willem Dafoe has worked with is long and impressive. For his outstanding contribution to international cinema, Dafoe received an Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival on Tuesday.
"It's a great honor," Dafoe told DW's Adrian Kennedy in an exclusive interview. "I have a long history with the Berlinale. And a long history with Berlin – this place is special to me. So to be recognized for contributing something makes me feel useful."
To coincide with the award and recognition of his varied career, the film festival has been screening some of Dafoe's most critically-acclaimed films. Audiences in Berlin can relive his compelling portrayal of an American soldier in 1986's "Platoon," or the blood-sucking character of Max Schreck in "Shadow of the Vampire."
Though nominated for an Academy Award for both roles, the actor has never won an Oscar. Luck may smile upon him this year, however, with an Oscar nomination for "The Florida Project" in which he plays Bobby Hicks, the manager of The Magic Castle Motel who looks out for the children of a wayward mother.
Willem Dafoe plays Bobby Peru in David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Everett Collection
The actor's most commercially successful role to this day is that of Norman Osborn, alias Green Goblin, in the "Spider-Man" movie from 2002. Arguably his most sinister role is that of Bobby Peru in 1990's "Wild at Heart."
Willem Dafoe was born in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1955 and began studying drama at university at the age of 17. He left the institution after only three semesters when he joined an experimental theater company, "Theatre X." He started to focus on film in the 1980s.
Since starting his career as an actor, Dafoe has traveled repeatedly to Berlin and remains inspired by the city, and country, currently honoring him.
"Germany is really impressive in its support of culture; it's a rich country and it knows the importance of culture," he told Kennedy. "I've met friends here. I've performed here with a theater. I'd made movies here. I've been at the Berlinale. So it's a personal story. Germany has changed so much through the years that I am part of that history."
Click through the gallery above to relive some of Dafoe's most unforgettable performances.
