-Thank you so much for being here.
-Sure! My pleasure. My pleasure.
-This is truly one of my favorite movies of the year.
It's wonderful.
I also -- Before we get to it, I want to thank you
because you were also nominated for a Golden Globe.
You were in the audience.
I made a joke about it was the first time men
could hear their name as nominees and not be terrified.
And you gave me a great reaction to that joke,
and I think it got a bigger laugh than the joke itself.
[ Laughter ]
-I got a rubber face, what can I say?
-You got a rubber face. It was great.
Well, thank you so much.
So, this film, you actually --
It's about families living in a budget hotel in Florida.
It's obviously an actual hotel
that was still running while you were shooting.
-Right. Right.
There were residents there around that kind of
were living the same life that we were depicting in the film.
-You play a manager of this hotel.
Were there times that people who live there
thought you were the actual manager?
-Well you know, like, a couple of times,
they had to get us out of the way
because they had to check people in, for example.
We'd be in the middle of the scene,
and they were like, "Can you move aside?
We got business to do here." [ Laughter ]
-And one of the other things that was great --
There's a fantastic scene in the movie where, as the manager,
you have to get actual birds out of the way.
-These birds were -- They're protected.
So you couldn't touch them,
and occasionally they'd come over to --
I think the real manager was feeding them Cheetos.
-Okay, gotcha. [ Laughter ]
-That's why they would come around,
and sometimes they'd be in our shot.
And one time the director said,
"Can you deal with that -- those birds?"
And the camera was rolling and we went with it,
so I had a little improvised scene with the birds.
[ Laughter ]
And they were very good. -They were great.
-They're great partners. -Yeah, great scene partners.
It was a wonderful scene.
I will also say, it seems like if birds are protected,
you shouldn't be able to give them Cheetos.
[ Laughter ]
That seems like -- -I didn't give them --
-Yeah, no look, it's very clear. -It's the other guy.
-Yeah, throw him under the bus.
So, the kids -- Obviously, you're a trained actor.
The kids and a lot of the actors in this film
came from local community theaters.
Some of them had not acted before.
-One of the -- The mother that plays the --
Well, the mother and the 6-year-old child
are the main performers.
And the child is 6 years old. -Yeah.
-She's done some things, but she's 6 years old.
-Yeah.
-And Bria, who plays her mother, was found on Instagram.
-Yeah, she's fantastic. -Fantastic.
And I loved performing with them because they're very free.
They have nothing to compare it to.
They're totally in.
They're really good at pretending.
They're really good at just dealing with what we're doing.
They aren't thinking outside of what's happening.
They're very present, and that's always a pleasure.
-And so when you work with people
who have less experience than you,
does it make you feel more experienced,
or does it bring you back to like when you were --
-I think it brings you back,
and that's what you always want to do.
You kind of want to forget what you know
and enter the story on its own terms
and not think about tricks you have or a process you need.
You know, you try to find new ways.
-There are a lot of people
who are pulling for you at the Oscars.
-That's cool.
-And one of them is Denis Leary.
Denis Leary tweeted, "Really need Willem Dafoe
to win an Oscar this year
so I can be mistaken for an Oscar winner wherever I go."
[ Laughter and applause ]
So that was very nice.
I mean, it seems a little self-interested,
but it's still -- -It's self-interest.
-Yeah, and then, this is pretty great.
"This morning my Uber driver
said he loved me in 'The Florida Project'
and wondered if I was working on my Oscar speech.
I said thank you and yes.
Then we took a photo together. #GoDafoe."
[ Laughter and applause ]
So it is -- It's already happening.
-The only thing -- I got a beef with Denis Leary
because he keeps on having me take the rap for "Dumbo Drop."
-Oh, wow.
So he was in the movie "Dumbo Drop"
and now you have to answer questions about that?
-No, no, he always says, "No, that wasn't me.
That was Dafoe!" -Oh, my God!
[ Laughter ] It's even worse.
-I've never seen the movie.
I shouldn't say it, until I've seen it.
-That's true. I will tell you this.
-It's a good movie?
-If he's getting credit for "Florida Project,"
you deserve better than "Dumbo Drop."
[ Laughter ]
Is there anyone -- Who do you get mistaken for?
-Probably the best one, and the most --
the one that happens the most times is --
particularly when I'm thin -- Mick Jagger.
-Okay, that's pretty great.
-And it's always very enthusiastic.
They -- It's always, "Oh! Oh! Mick Jagger! Mick Jagger!"
[ Laughter ]
And they're always like, "Oh, do that thing! You know?
Come on, baby, do that thing!"
[ Cheers and applause ]
Which is cool. Which is cool.
I love Mick Jagger. -Yeah.
-I grew up with Mick Jagger.
Forget that he's about 20 years older than I am.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, yeah. You got to let that go.
-He's cool.
-It seems like, because I will say that was very good.
[ Laughter ]
It seems like you own it, and you don't --
Do you correct people
or do you let them have that moment and say
they met Mick Jagger?
-Better yet -- Once I was someplace --
it was in Italy,
and I went to the toilet and I heard the kitchen going,
"...Mick Jagger. Mick Jagger."
And I get so scared that they'd come out and ask me
for an autograph or something.
I was -- I didn't know whether I could say, "No, I'm not him."
Or I just do it and hope I get out
before they really ask me to dance or sing, you know.
-The best would be if you were in Italy and you faked it
and they immediately looked were like, "He's no Mick Jagger."
[ Laughter ]
-That's another story.
-Congratulations. Good luck at the Oscars.
It's just such a fantastic film, and it's so great to have you.