-Look at you. What a stud. Come on, man.
[ Cheers ]
A big black book.
I mean, do you like doing these photo shoots?
-I do, actually. -You do, really?
-Yeah. A lot of actors complain about it.
But I kind of like it. You go there -- No, it's true.
You go there, they got clothes. You meet the photographer.
And then you invent stuff. And it's fun.
It's like, you know --
-You know what they create, yeah.
I always end up -- -It's dress up, you know.
-Yeah.
They don't have you do anything that wacky, though.
-Sometimes.
-They do? -Yeah.
-That's not bad. If it's tasteful.
-Straightforward. -Yeah, it's classy.
and you're eating an apple, I get it.
-Yeah.
-They have things where they're like, Jimmy, can you put
the apple into your mouth and --
then they say, "No, we'll never use it."
-They have me do that, of course.
-Of course, I'm not asked to be on the cover of anything either.
-Wear a dead fish like a tie.
-Yeah. You've done that?
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Did you get the bottle of whiskey?
-I did, thank you. Compliments of Bob.
-Bob Dylan's whiskey, Heaven's Door.
-I didn't even know. -Yeah, Bob Dylan --
Do you know what I'm talking about?
Bob Dylan has his own whiskey.
-I didn't know that. -Yeah, man, he's the coolest.
We're both big fans of Dylan.
Have you ever met Bob Dylan? -I have. I have.
-Was he cool? -I've met him a couple of times.
But most recently I saw a beautiful concert in Rome,
at the Baths of Caracalla,
which was a beautiful place to see him.
-Oh, my gosh. -He was crooning.
-He's amazing. -He was doing the Sinatra thing
that he's been doing lately. -Isn't that great?
But he also -- and no cellphones, right?
At the one I was at, there's like a rule.
You're not allowed to pull out your cellphones.
If you pull it out, you get removed.
-You can't take cellphones away from Italians.
-Oh, really? You can't? Oh, really? Oh.
I saw him at the Capitol Theatre, here.
And no cellphones, they just said, "Hey, just don't do it."
They didn't put them in bags or anything.
And everyone listened to him. -Cool.
No one had -- And I was, like, I haven't seen a concert like this
since I was in high school. No cellphones?
Now you go to concerts, everyone's got iPads.
I mean, they have, like, camera equipment.
It's like, oh, please.
But he's amazing. -Very cool.
And a gentleman.
It was a great concert.
I went back afterwards and, like you,
I don't want to bother him. -I don't want to bother anybody.
-And because I love him so much and I said,
"Bob, hi, you sounded great."
And he said, "Oh, Willem. I see you on the silver screen."
-Yeah! Is that cool? -I love that so much.
You know, that someone that I've been following all those years,
the idea that -- -He knows you and likes you.
-It's kind of silly, but, yeah.
-It's good. Why not? I love that.
Let's talk about your movies. "At Eternity's Gate."
-Yeah.
-Explain to everyone who you play.
This is Vincent Van Gogh? -I play Vincent Van Gogh.
Everybody loves Vincent Van Gogh.
You've got the South of France, he cuts off his ear,
and then he died. -There you go. I mean, come on.
No spoilers. No spoilers. But that's --
[ Applause ]
-No, it's a beautiful -- Now, seriously, folks.
It's a beautiful movie.
It's one of the dearest movies I've ever done.
It's Julian Schnabel.
-I love Julian Schnabel, too. -He directed it.
A painter directing a film about a painter.
It's really about ways of seeing.
It's not a standard biopic.
It's very moving and will change how you see,
you know, it's a beautiful movie.
-Was it pressure for you to paint
in front of Julian Schnabel? -He taught me.
So I was always connected to him.
I mean, I was him, he was me. I was his creature, you know?
And I loved that.
Because he's been -- he's been thinking about
Vincent Van Gogh all his life.
And he taught me how to paint, and when he teaches you how
to paint you really learn things.
How to make marks, how to paint light.
It's a beautiful thing.
It really changes how you see things.
-You did it in real time? -Well, yeah, you have to.
Because that's just the way the film is shot.
There is not a lot of, you know, cutting away.
It's very subjective camera. It's a very cool movie.
-It really is fantastic. You know, I love Julian.
Congrats on all the great reviews and the nomination.
-Thanks. -I mean, that's fun,
a Golden Globe nomination? Come on.
-It's good.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Well deserved, buddy. -Thank you.
And it brings awareness to the film, it's great.
So far, so good. -Yeah, exactly.
You have that movie, then you also have this big,
giant blockbuster, "Aquaman."
Congrats on this. It is a great movie.
I loved it. I recommend --
[ cheers and applause ]
Look at that, same guy.
I recommend seeing it at an IMAX if you can.
Because it's all -- I mean most of it is CGI, right?
It has to be. You're not underwater.
-Not most of it. -You're not acting underwater.
-To create the underwater thing, I'm always on wires, almost,
which was really cool. it's like --
-How did you ride the shark?
'Cause you ride on a giant shark.
-Yeah, but when I was doing it, it's not a shark.
It's a green cube.
[ Laughter ]
-You're sitting on a box? -I'm sitting basically
on a box on wires and flying around.
-You really are a fantastic actor, you really are.
[ Cheers ]
I thought you were on a shark.
-The trick is, you know,
to personalize it and make it, you know, try to imagine it.
-The green box? -The green box.
-You personalized the green box? -Yeah.
-The shark? -I gave it a name.
-Did you really? -Named it Muriel.
[ Laughter ]
After my mother.
That's not to say she was a shark.
She was actually very sweet. -Oh, yeah?
-Somehow I loved that name, and it made me love my shark.
That's the connection you've got to make when you're an actor.
-Yeah. It's a fun movie.
I recommend everyone go check it out.
I want to show a clip. Here's Willem Dafoe in "Aquaman."
Take a look at this.
-So what's with the big fork?
-It's a trident.
Now defend yourself.
♪♪
[ Clanging ]
-Hyah!
Ah!
♪♪
Hyah!
What the hell is this?
-I'll teach you this move when you've mastered the trident.
♪♪
-That's right, buddy. Willem Dafoe, everybody.