He has five sisters and a brother. Dafoe received his second Academy Award nomination for his role as Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire (2000), a fictionalized account of the making of the classic vampire film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922; Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror). Hill met Lane in New York City and she auditioned for him in black leather pants, a black mesh top and high-heeled boots. [38], Dafoe made a cameo appearance in John Waters' musical comedy Cry-Baby (1990) as a prison guard who gives a brief lecture on values to the title character, who is played by Johnny Depp. [72], Dafoe took on two leading roles in 2001, both of which were as priests. [40] He wore fake, corroded teeth and grew a pencil moustache that bore resemblance to his previous collaborator, John Waters. "[5][9] Hill liked the idea and cast her. His character was described as a "diminutive version of Dick Cheney, with wire-rimmed glasses and a fringe of white hair" by The Times writer Caryn James. We went further with that, perhaps, than we should have. Daily, and Deborah Van Valkenburgh. [17] Dafoe was only present for the first three months of an eight-month shoot. Dafoe voiced Gill, a moorish idol fish who helps Nemo, a clownfish, in his struggle to return home to the ocean. I had to have a scapegoat. [196] He practices ashtanga vinyasa yoga every day. The film follows a pair of United States Navy pilots, played by Dafoe and Johnson, who scheme and participate in an unauthorized air strike on Hanoi. Willem Dafoe in STREETS OF FIRE. There was tremendous love and confidence. It's funny. [185] Peter Travers of Good Morning America and Jade King at The Gamer praised Dafoe and Molina, with King asserting that the two "stole the show as Green Goblin and Doc Ock" and described the depictions as brilliant. So I went to Jimmy Iovine and I said all that to his, yeah it's true, I know. [150] He was next featured in a supporting role as a mean-spirited, alcoholic author who is visited by a pair of cancer patients, who are played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, in the romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars. Gross says he and Hill were also influenced by the teen films of John Hughes. "[4], The film went on to make a total of $8 million in North America, compared to a production budget of $14.5 million. Dafoe portrayed John Henry Carpenter, an electronics expert who develops a strange friendship with the actor Bob Crane, leading Crane into a downward spiral. Janet Maslin of The New York Times felt there were no great performances in the film, but praised Dafoe's "perfectly villainous" face. Bigelow was dating David Giler, a collaborator and friend of Hill at the time. He played the "hilariously doltish" German first mate of a research vessel owned by the eponymous lead character, who is played by Bill Murray. Raven meets with Ed Price, the head of the police department, and promises him no more trouble if he arranges for Tom to meet with him alone. I had never done a love scene beforeI really needed help to get through it. stunts (uncredited) Terry Leonard . William James "Willem" Dafoe (born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. [173] Owen Gleiberman of Variety said "Both actors are sensational (and they work together like one), but in terms of sheer showboating power its Dafoes movie. "[4], When the script was finished, they sent it to Paramount. [172] In the same year, he played a lighthouse keeper on a storm-swept island in Robert Eggers' psychological horror The Lighthouse opposite Robert Pattinson. They kind of saw it worked in the world of an MTV video."[8]. ActorAgeCheck Streets of Fire Release Date : Friday, June 1 1984 38 years ago Results: 47 Michael Par Tom Cody Michael Par was: 25 Thu, Oct 09 1958 Diane Lane Ellen Aim Diane Lane was: 19 Fri, Jan 22 1965 Rick Moranis Billy Fish Rick Moranis was: 31 Sat, Apr 18 1953 Amy Madigan McCoy The Attackers were the real-life (Face to Face) bandmates of Sargent, who provided the lead vocals on Ellen's songs "Nowhere Fast", "Never Be You" and "Sorcerer", and supporting vocals on "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young". This cult favorite features a razor-sharp cast and original songs written by Jim Steinman, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and Ry Cooder and performed by The Blasters and The Fixx. [5] Hill was so impressed with her work on the film that he wrote additional scenes for her during the shoot. Although the film was largely dismissed by critics,[62] critic David Stratton found there to be "compensation" in the performances. In a way, I think Streets of Fire was about expanding The Warriors concept to a bigger stage. Dafoe made his film debut in Heavens Gate (1980) and appeared in numerous other movies in the early 1980s. In high school, he acquired the nickname Willem,[11] the Dutch version of the name William. Speed 2 was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics,[57] with Dafoe himself receiving a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actor. Dafoe played a cold, domineering English professor who has a strained relationship with his family. The exterior of the Richmond Theater where Ellen Aim sings at the beginning of the film was shot on the backlot, with the interior done in the Wiltern Theater in L.A. for two weeks. Action Crime Drama A mercenary is hired to rescue his ex-girlfriend, a singer who has been kidnapped by a motorcycle gang. Tom goes to the hotel where Ellen and Billy are staying to collect his reward, but he takes only McCoy's cut and throws the rest back at Billy. After studying at 'Appleton East High School,' he enrolled at the 'University of Wisconsin' in Milwaukee to study drama when he was 17. Dafoes subsequent roles included a mercenary in pursuit of a Tasmanian tiger in the Australian thriller The Hunter (2011) and an animated Martian warrior, portrayed through the motion-capture technique, in the sci-fi adventure John Carter (2012). [197], On May 22, 2022, Dafoe was invited back to his alma mater the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee by Chancellor Mark Mone to serve as the keynote speaker for the university's commencement ceremony and to receive an honorary Doctor of Arts degree. He had his first leading role in the outlaw biker film The Loveless (1982) and then played the main antagonist in Streets of Fire (1984) and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large and small, Hollywood films as well as Independent cinema. "Joel got off the phone with Universal and said, 'We're dead.' He's like a cowboy. It is described in its opening credits and posters as "A Rock & Roll. It was kind of real but it wasn't really. [190] The psychological horror film Inside had its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, and was released in the United States in March by Focus Features. . [11], Gross says Hill was making Brewster's Millions at the time. [4], Gross also wrote that "there was a chance of something great, but early fundamental disappointment with key personnel (in that case the star, Michael Par) steeled all of us to face the chance that it might not turn out that way."[17]. Steinman has said the filmmakers were convinced they would have the rights to the Bruce Springsteen song "Streets of Fire", and filmed an ending using it. "[4], Among the actors they saw for the role of Tom Cody were Eric Roberts, Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze. Movies. The Hollywood they make movies about." The title of the former was used as the tagline on some promotional materials for the film. (Laughs)[15]. [100], In 2007, Dafoe played a pretentious film director in the British comedy film Mr. Bean's Holiday, starring Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean. Raven confronts Tom and warns him that he will be coming for Ellen and for him, too. He studied theatre at the University of Wisconsin but left school to join Theater X, an experimental Wisconsin-based theatre troupe with which Dafoe toured for four years. [195], Dafoe is a pescetarian, citing his belief that "animal farms are one of the main causes of the destruction of the planet". I didn't get those fancy leads. Larry Gross later said they were affected "as everyone was at the time" by the success of Flashdance and they decided during writing that the film would be a musical: We said this movie is a stylized movie, it's not so different from the world of a musical. Dafoe's co-star John Malkovich portrayed the film's director, F. W. Murnau. I'm a director!" Notable roles include in The English Patient (1996), American Psycho (2000), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Antichrist (2009), John Wick (2014), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), The Lighthouse (2019), The French Dispatch (2021), Nightmare Alley (2021), and The Northman (2022). He gained prominence for his role in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), in which he played a counterfeiter attempting to elude capture by the police. Gross says they wanted Tom Cruise and made him an offer, but he had already accepted another role. Nowhe neglected to mention that some fairy tales are very violent. We're gonna have to do it. [159] He next played the boss of Gerard Butler's character in the drama A Family Man and starred in Loris Graud's arthouse science fiction film Sculpt, which was only screened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for one person at a time. Reply . [68] His next film of 2000, Steve Buscemi's crime drama Animal Factory, starred as Dafoe an incarcerated veteran con-man who takes a young inmate (played by Edward Furlong) under his wing and introduces to him to his gang. After having sex, Tom and Ellen discuss the possibility of eloping. He has frequently collaborated with filmmakers Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Lars von Trier, Julian Schnabel, Wes Anderson, and Robert Eggers. He played an eccentric, gay FBI agent assigned with investigating a series of murders committed by the MacManus twins (played by Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) who are acting as vigilantes in Boston, Massachusetts after an act of self-defense. [5] The version of "Sorcerer", composed by Stevie Nicks, that was featured on the soundtrack album was performed by Marilyn Martin. Search News Random Tilda Swinton Says She Won't Wear A Mask On Set Despite COVID Safety Protocols Nicholas Laskin I don't think there was any other way to do it given the circumstances.[8]. I don't know. ancientdad Additional comment actions. But our commitment to be stylized was thorough and conscious and maybe too extreme for the mainstream audience. I was like, "Jesus, this is incredible. [5], Willem Dafoe was recommended by Kathryn Bigelow, who had just made a film with him. I did it in two days. [4], Hill heard about Michael Par from the same agent who recommended Eddie Murphy to him for 48 Hrs (his then-girlfriend and later wife Hildy). Dafoe played the caretaker of a house that is inherited by the lover of its deceased owner, engaging in a sexual relationship with her. Willem Dafoe was born in 1955, so he's no longer a young man. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [4], Streets of Fire fared poorly at the box office, opening in 1,150 theaters on June 1, 1984, and grossing $2.4 million during its first weekend. - Michael Par plays a biker who agrees to rescue his ex-girlfriend (a rocker played by Diane Lane) from kidnappers (led by Willem Dafoe). [144] Also in 2013, Dafoe played the devil in a Mercedes-Benz Super Bowl commercial[145] and starred in three short student films as part of a competition sponsored by Jameson Irish Whiskey. So it was left behind. [13] For Hill, Par "had the right quality. In downtown LA. A guy named Sean Daniels, who was head of production, one day said to me, well there is hostility because we understand you waited about eight months to come up with that final song and you never did it. You just frame them, give them circumstances, and that character will happen. [12] He then apprenticed under Richard Schechner, the director of the avant-garde theater troupe The Performance Group, where he met and became romantically involved with director Elizabeth LeCompte. This is Hollywood. Dafoe played the Norman Osborn incarnation of the Green Goblin, the billionaire founder and owner of the corporation Oscorp, becoming the Green Goblin after testing an unstable strength enhancer on himself, turning him insane and making him extremely powerful. Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg played a couple whose relationship becomes increasingly sexually violent and sadomasochistic after retreating to a cabin in the woods following the death of their child. [5][9][10], The film's title came from a song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen on his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. Maybe if we'd had Tom Cruise, we might have had a success. [3] Originally, plans were made for the song to be featured on the film's soundtrack, to be sung by Ellen Aim at the end of the film, but when Springsteen was told that the song would be re-recorded by other vocalists, he withdrew permission for the song to be used. The two movies that came out in the years after that are completely saturated in the iconography of Streets of Fire are RoboCop and Se7en. Willem Dafoe. Dafoe played a paraplegic, wheelchair-using Vietnam veteran who befriends the film's subject Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise), another paraplegic veteran. Hookers with a heart of gold. 'Cause they kept screaming at us, it's over the budget. We sat down, I remember, in a little park. Witnessing this is Reva Cody, who telegrams her brother Tom, an ex-soldier and Ellen's ex-boyfriend, asking him to come home. Gross and Hill met with the editors on the weekends and looked at footage. And we started giggling, in that way people do when things are terriblethere's the song in the movie called 'Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young'. [4], Walter Hill thought "the audience will go with you when you set up an abstract world with teenage values and play out a drama within this. [29][30] His second release of 1988 was Martin Scorsese's epic drama The Last Temptation of Christ, in which Dafoe portrayed Jesus. I said, where'd you hear that? I panicked, and Joel Silver, called Walter and somehow persuaded him to come over and direct me through the ADR. Dafoe voiced the Australian ABC-television documentary 'River' in 2022,[177] which was written to highlight the precaricity of rivers worldwide. Meanwhile, Ellen is on a train with Tom and McCoy, believing that Tom is leaving with her, but Tom knocks out Ellen and returns to town to confront Raven. Birds who had nested in the tarp provided their own noisy interruptions.[5]. Gross would do a draft and Hill would rewrite it. [6][7] He has five sisters and two brothers and is of English, French, German, Irish, and Scottish descent. Although three districts are seen, the city has a total of five districts: the Richmond, the Strip, the Battery, the Cliffside, and the Bayside. He is the recipient of various . [164] Dafoe earned his third Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination, as well as nominations at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and BAFTA Awards. The Damen Avenue stop (Blue line, at Damen, North, and Milwaukee avenues) was used. [39] In the same year, Dafoe co-starred in David Lynch's crime film Wild at Heart with Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern. Willem Dafoe. It's not Chicago. Two songs written by Jim Steinman were part of the soundtrack: "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young" and "Nowhere Fast", both performed by Fire Inc., with Holly Sherwood providing lead vocals on the former and Laurie Sargent on the latter. The light in The Battery was contrasting and harsh, with vivid colors. Elias Grodin in Oliver Stones Platoon (1986), which earned Dafoe his first Academy Award nomination. [179][180][181], Dafoe reprised his role as Green Goblin from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home, released on December 17, 2021. Walter proudly considers himself a capitalist, so he suggested we do the latter. He's a cowboy. Nishitani said that, at the time, the team were not "aware of Streets of Fire, but I've Googled it and there does indeed seem to be something familiar about it" but that "this style of story was very popular back then" and many "fighting games made use of it" so "I guess we were part of that crowd! Streets of Fire (1984) Willem Dafoe: Raven Showing all 18 items Jump to: Photos (13) Quotes (5) Photos Quotes Raven : *I'm* lucky? [67], In his first film of the 2000s, Dafoe was featured in a supporting role in American Psycho (2000) as a private investigator investigating the disappearance of a co-worker of Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale), an investment banker who leads a double life as a serial killer. I got those best friend of the leads, quirky, funny characters. The role required Dafoe to wear an uncomfortable costume and mask that made it impossible to emote using his face, confining Dafoe to convey emotion through his voice and head movements. The film received mixed reviews, although Peter Travers felt that he added a note of "vulnerability to the menace he has made his stock in trade". Streets of Fire was released in the United States on June 1, 1984, by Universal Pictures. Because I wanted to be on that stage singing with those guysBut back then I always played those quirky characters. He was portrayed by Willem Dafoe, who also played Eric Masters in To Live and Die in L.A., Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart, John Geiger in Speed 2: Cruise Control, Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire, the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and Spider-Man: No Way Home, Armando Barillo in Once Upon a . [182][183] Also, like Alfred Molina (who reprised his role as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus in the film), Dafoe was digitally de-aged for the character's 2002 self. While Reva and McCoy go to the diner where Reva works, Tom acquires a cache of weapons, including a pump action shotgun, a revolver, and a lever action rifle. The Hollywood Reporter thought that Dafoe appeared to think he was "in a pantomime",[101] while a New York Times reviewer felt he was "amusing" in the role. The film was adapted from the novel of the same name and depicts his struggle with various forms of temptation throughout his life. For Hill, the subways and their look was crucial to the world of the film and represented one of three modes of transportationthe other two being cars and motorcycles. They can antagonize you and say whatever theywant, and you can't do anything to stop themHe's this weird looking little guy who couldn't get laid in a whore house with a fistful of fifties. He played a tormented T.S. [3], According to cinematographer Andrew Laszlo, the film's style was dictated by the story. The Lantern's Brett Price wrote that Dafoe was "on another level" in No Way Home and not having his mask made him even more intimidating than he was in the 2002 film. [107] Dafoe starred with Ryan Reynolds, Julia Roberts, and Emily Watson in the drama Fireflies in the Garden, which premiered at Berlinale in 2008 but was not released theatrically until 2011. Comedians are a special breed. We're gonna have to re-build the Wiltern Theater, which they had taken down, it was a million dollars to re-do the ending and I felt all his hostility for Universal. In 1977 he moved to New York City and joined the Performance Group. And Tom Cody will be the football hero. This tarp measured 1,240 feet long by 220 feet wide over both sets, and cost $1.2 million to construct. Dafoe received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Oliver Stone's war film Platoon (1986). Biography. The film takes place during the Middle Ages and saw Dafoe play the leader of acting troupe that recreate the events surrounding a woman accused of witchcraft and murder, who they believe is innocent. Perhaps his best-known role was as Sgt. "[5] Par said of his character, "He's someone who can come in and straighten everything out. "Willem and I have been quite friendly since Streets of Fire ," Hill told Forbes. He told me he's going to do this new thing: he's going to put a female character right in the centre of the narrative."[7]. On January 18, 2022, it was announced that Dafoe would host Saturday Night Live on January 29, 2022, with musical guest singer Katy Perry. [152] His final film of 2014 was the action thriller John Wick starring Keanu Reeves, in which Dafoe appeared as the mentor to the titular character, a former hitman who is forced out of retirement to seek vengeance for the killing of his puppy. [28] Dafoe provided his voice to the documentary Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987) and, in 1988, Dafoe starred in another film set during the Vietnam War, this time as Criminal Investigation Command Agent Buck McGriff in the action thriller Off Limits. [114][115] Roger Ebert commended Dafoe's and Gainsbourg's performances as being "heroic and fearless". I've always wondered why Walter has never wanted to work with me again. Price, with reinforcements, is just about to arrest Raven, but is ambushed by an overwhelming amount of Bombers. [111] In his final release of 2008, Dafoe starred in the Greek drama The Dust of Time as an American film director of Greek descent making a film his mother's (played by Irne Jacob) life. Roger Ebert praised Dafoe's "gifted" portrayal of LeTour and Owen Gleiberman opined that "even when the film doesn't gel, one is held by Willem Dafoe's grimly compelling performance. [58] For his next film, Affliction (1997), Dafoe worked with Paul Schrader for a second time, playing the brother of Nick Nolte's character and served as the film's narrator. But the minute the momentum slows, it's another storya story about a movie with no story at all. [131] In 2011, Dafoe began narrating a series of television commercials for the Greek yogurt company Fage and starred in a Jim Beam commercial titled "Bold Choices". [90] Also in 2004, Dafoe narrated the documentary Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate, chronicling the production of Heaven's Gate and co-starred as a neuropharmacologist in the direct-to-video thriller Control (2004) alongside Ray Liotta and Michelle Rodriguez. The point is that we had in mind one sentence inspired by George Lucas: "in a galaxy long ago", a futuristic past. I really freaked out. [118][119] Dafoe played a former vampire who has a cure that can save the human species in the science fiction horror film Daybreakers, which starred Ethan Hawke as a vampire hematologist. "[11], Roger Ebert wrote that "the language is strange, too: It's tough, but not with 1984 toughness. His character in the film served as the main antagonist, who captures the ex-girlfriend of a mercenary, played by Diane Lane and Michael Par, respectively. He was the only actor I found who was right for the part a striking combination of toughness and innocence. Share the best GIFs now >>> Tenor.com has been translated based on your browser's language setting. Don't worry about the script Then we go to the first edit, the first cut of the movie in the screening room and it's [Jimmy] Iovine and me and Joel Silver And about 20 minutes into the movie Jimmy turns to me and he goes this movie is really shitty isn't it? [5] All 10 days of filming in Chicago were exteriors at night, on locations that included platforms of elevated subway lines and the depths of Lower Wacker Drive. We felt that we had compensated adequately in making a fun, exciting, stylized world. The group is joined by "Baby Doll", a fan of Ellen's, who warns them that the police are looking for the people who were behind the attack at Torchies. [60] Following a villainous supporting role in the romantic mystery drama Lulu on the Bridge,[61] Dafoe starred alongside Christopher Walken and Asia Argento in Abel Ferrara's cyberpunk drama New Rose Hotel in 1998. The first to be released, White Sands, saw Dafoe a play small-town sheriff who impersonates a dead man after finding his dead body and a suitcase containing $500,000 to solve the case, resulting in an FBI investigation. I remember, after the first screenings, people told me that I was going to be rich for life. stunt double Willem Dafoe (uncredited) / stunts (uncredited) Allan Graf . [88][89] Dafoe then had a small role as a tabloid magazine editor in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004), a biographical film about Howard Hughes starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Reva tries to convince Tom to rescue Ellen, but he refuses. Rita Kempley of The Washington Post found the scene to be one of the film's highlights. I think that's going to be demonstrated even more clearly in his next films. That idea of a totally artificial universe. "[25], Gary Arnold wrote in The Washington Post that as "romantic leads, Par and Lane are pretty much a washout", and that "most of the action climaxes are treated as such throwaways that you begin to wonder if they bored the director. Dafoe co-starred in the film as the father of Bryce Dallas Howard's character, a woman who discovers a plantation still thriving as if slavery had never been abolished. [143] Dafoe next appeared in Lars von Trier's two-part erotic art film Nymphomaniac, his third and final film release of 2013. comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment . 3 yr. ago. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. This is a fairy tale. Gross recalls that about five weeks into the 14-week shoot: I turned to Walter and said "This movie is somewhat weirder than we thoughtWe just didn't anticipate what the combination of elements was going to be. [5] However, the song was sung for the film by Winston Ford, whose vocals were lip-synched by Jackson in the movie. So Walter said were going to make a high school movie that's also going to be a comic book and also going to be a musical. And I was like, "Ohthis is not going to go well." [21] Dafoe starred alongside Judge Reinhold in Roadhouse 66 (1985) as a pair of yuppies who become stranded in a town on U.S. Route 66. And Walter isn't the kind of guy who works well with kids. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast . He later appeared in The Last Thing He Wanted (2020), an adaptation of a Joan Didion novel. *Real* dumb if you think you can pull this off. In the real world, if someone insults you a couple of times, you can smack them. Tom and Raven duel using sledgehammers and their fists, with Tom ultimately being victorious. And just so you know, this is the early 80s and you had stylized filmslike New York Citythat were all done on set and that idea was in the air. I guess maybe I am. [34] Dafoe was briefly considered for the role of the super-villain the Joker in the Tim Burton-directed superhero film Batman (1989), as screenwriter Sam Hamm noticed physical similarities, but was never offered the part that eventually went to Jack Nicholson. So we said here's what's going to be weird about the world of our movie: No one's going to be over 30. Dafoe plays John LeTour, the film's hero who is a 40-year-old high-class drug dealer (and a reformed addict) who searches aimlessly for purpose. Those are two very successful movies that figured out how to do the stylization with the appropriate amount of gore that they hooked the audience. [5], "We were very excited about Diane Lane because she was starring in two excitedly hyped Francis Ford Coppola pictures that were being done in Oklahoma", says Gross. [99] He starred with Juliette Binoche in a short film directed by Nobuhiro Suwa as part of the 2006 anthology film Paris, je t'aime. [56] The film starred Sandra Bullock and Jason Patric as a couple vacationing on a luxury cruise that has been hijacked by Dafoe's character, Geiger, a hacker that has programmed the ship to crash into an oil tanker. In 2017 he notably appeared in Murder on the Orient Express and The Florida Project, about a single mother and her young daughter. The sound of the tarp flapping in the wind interfered with the actors dialogue.