- Let's talk the Macarena.
Because once the Macarena started playing, obviously
like I grew up in the nineties, it's very in my head then, and when
the character sings along with it, I was surprised you don't do the dance.
Was that like a choice of like,
“No, Nemo doesn't do the dance?”
- I think it's a little too cute.
I think that that didn't occur to us, you know?
- Okay, you got 7 minutes.
Stay focused.
The art in here is worth millions.
Proceed to step two.
[alarm blarring]
- What’s happening?
Come in!
It won’t open!
- Sorry, man.
You're on your own.
- [Kristy] I got to tell you, when I told people
that I was interviewing you, every person I talked to referenced a different movie.
Everybody was like Spider-Man, Boondock Saints,
The Lighthouse, The Last Temptation of Christ.
And it made me wonder,
when people approach you, what kind of reception do you tend to get?
- It's a little bit like that.
I must I confess, I like that because it shows that
if it doesn't make me feel stuck in one
track, you know?
The idea that you can be seen in different ways
and that also there isn't one
fixed appetite for people, you know?
It's flexibility for them and flexibility for me.
See, that's exciting for me because every time I go to see a Willem
Dafoe movie, like with Inside, I'm like, I don't know what I'm getting.
I like I feel like I expect intensity.
Beyond that, it's a wide field.
So like, I'm curious what drew you to Inside?
Lots of reasons.
The premise is really good. I like the idea.
Obviously, you know,
it's a different kind of performing because there aren't conventional scenes.
There isn't a lot of dialogue.
The screenplay had certain details, but there were huge areas
that we were going to develop on the day.
I knew we were going to shoot in chronological order,
which is always really interesting because then you don't worry
so much about the past or the future.
You don't anticipate the effects of scenes that will happen before or after.
I don't usually, anyway.
I really believe you play a scene for a scene, but you're really liberated
to take one step at a time, make an action,
have a reaction, react to that, react to that, make another action.
Boom, boom, boom.
And then you get a rhythm.
And all of a sudden this narrative that you don't necessarily
even control starts to lift you up and you just try to surf it, you know?
And that's
the best condition for a performer.
Because then you're really performing and you're not concerned
about so much about what you're
what stuff means as you're connected to the doing,
you're connected to what's going on, you're connected to what's in the room.
And I knew that how it was built, how it was proposed
inside would be a great opportunity to experience that.
- Such an industrious career.
Is there anything that still scares you as a performer?
Yes, many things. I don't know what they are.
I don't know until they're in front of me.
But I sure.
The only thing is the nature of performing.
Every time you start, I swear to God, you have to ask yourself, “How
do I do this?” Because each time it's different.
Each project it's different.
Your role is different.
What's required of you, different.
Your approach is different.
The personalities you are collectively working with are different.
So each time you get to say, “How do we do this?”
So that's like going back to square one.
And there's always some fear in that of not knowing or failing or not doing well.
But then after you repeatedly have that little trauma
at the beginning of a movie, you say, “Okay, I feel it.
I honor it, but I know it doesn't kill me.
So I'll be with it and I'll punch through or I'll slide through
and we'll get past this, and then we'll get in the groove again.”
And somewhere, you know, you'll be there again.
So it's like the fear doesn't go away.
It just gets familiar and you know, it won't kill you.
That's an excellent answer.
I'm going to say, as a writer, I really appreciate that
because I deeply relate to know Willem Dafoe feels that way.
I'm sure it's the same.
And I think you're a fool if you aren't afraid
because, you know, I can only think the opposite
of being a little bit afraid is, “I got this.” A kind of assurity.
Fear comes out of, you know, not knowing.
And I think working from a place of not knowing or uncertainty
or questioning is obviously at the root of creative impulse.
So if you don't have that fear, I don't know,
you may have a kind of confidence and kind of force
and a kind of bravado, but you may lack a certain kind of,
I don't know, soul searching or vulnerability.
I don't know.