This week we continue our ongoing “Six of the Best” series with a tribute to a wonderful, versatile performer who has appeared in some of the most popular movies of the last 30 years. He’s played heroes, villains, husbands, fathers, grifters, vampires – I think you get the point. Of course, I’m talking about Willem Dafoe.
Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find another performer who can match the success that Dafoe has found in Hollywood. He’s built a career out of mastering the role of “supporting actor”, no matter what the character calls for. One look at his resume confirms as much. After all, do you know any other actor who can play the Green Goblin and Jesus Christ?
He takes a role in the late Chris Brinker’s Bad Country, a tough crime drama based on real life events in which loyalties move like shifting sands beneath the feet of known figures on both sides of the thin blue line. Matt Dillon and Amy Smart join Dafoe, who is in fine form as the dogged detective Bud Carter.
We’ve compiled a list of six roles that we think best illustrate Dafoe’s unique talents, and we welcome your input as well. Let’s get started.
6. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Dafoe got a chance to play around in the Wes Anderson universe in this 2004 comedic gem. He plays Klaus Daimler, the right-hand man of oceanographer/documentarian Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), as they set out on a journey to hunt down the elusive “Jaguar Shark” that ate his friend and co-host Esteban (Seymour Cassel).
Interestingly, Dafoe plays the comic relief opposite a cast of more seasoned “funny people” like Owen Wilson and Murray himself. Klaus is the half-crazy, dubious German character that serves as Zissou’s “wild card”. Morally-ambiguous and prone to unwarranted suspicion, Klaus is my favorite character in the movie. In the world of Wes Anderson, characters like this often exist. Dafoe would later appear in a similar role in Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox as the mysterious “Rat”.
Although it isn’t regarded as one of the more celebrated entries into the Wes Anderson canon, it’s still a fun watch. Especially given that the director included actors who he’s worked with before like Murray, Owen Wilson, Seymour Cassel and Anjelica Huston. This film is an important role for Dafoe, because it shows that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. When he dabbles in the absurd, he’s actually quite good.
