One was the decision on Universal's part, a crazy decision, to shoot the movie almost entirely in the studio under a tarpaulin. The story took place in Chicago, so they built Chicago in LA.[19]. [3] The studio claimed that they replaced Springsteen's song because it was a "downer". [69] Shadow of the Vampire, his final film of the year, saw him portray a fictionalized version of the German actor Max Schreck during the production of the 1922 horror film Nosferatu, in which Schreck starred as the vampire Count Orlok. [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. [5] At the time he was cast in March 1983, Par had appeared in two films, Eddie and the Cruisers and Undercover, which had not yet been released. "[27], In an essay for Film Comment, David Chute wrote "It's probably impossible not to enjoy the movie. I think that's going to be demonstrated even more clearly in his next films. No director holds a candle to Hill for sheer visceral expertise. "He did not love creating scripts from scratch; he loved rewriting." [11][12] Negotiations with Springsteen for rights to the song delayed production several times. [22] Later in 1985, Dafoe starred with William Petersen and John Pankow in William Friedkin's thriller To Live and Die in L.A., in which Dafoe portrays a counterfeiter named Rick Masters who is being tracked by two Secret Service agents. So they didn't pull the trigger and Berg ended up selling it to Universal. Dafoe portrayed John Henry Carpenter, an electronics expert who develops a strange friendship with the actor Bob Crane, leading Crane into a downward spiral. Dafoes numerous credits from 2016 included the crime drama Dog Eat Dog and the fantasy thriller The Great Wall, about monsters attacking the Great Wall of China. . 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). It was painful. [153] Dafoe stated he found the use of gun fu combat created an interesting mix of action, stating "you have the grace of martial arts, but then the bang of the gun". 3 yr. ago. I got those best friend of the leads, quirky, funny characters. [4], Streets of Fire has a number of similarities to Capcom's hit 1989 beat 'em up video game Final Fight. Dafoe appears in Wes Anderson's ensemble period comedy The French Dispatch and Guillermo del Toro's neo-noir psychological thriller Nightmare Alley, which were both released in 2021, and Robert Eggers's historical epic The Northman, released in 2022. 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 is of mixed ancestry. Reply . "[4], Among the actors they saw for the role of Tom Cody were Eric Roberts, Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze. [14], E.G. Willem Dafoe, original name William J. Dafoe, (born July 22, 1955, Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S.), American actor known for his versatility and willingness to appear in controversial roles. I really freaked out. Dafoe, the son of a surgeon and a nurse, was one of seven children. [155] Dafoe made his second guest appearance in the animated sitcom The Simpsons in November 2014, voicing a new school teacher who bullies Bart Simpson profusely. So I went to Jimmy Iovine and I said all that to his, yeah it's true, I know. William James Dafoe[2] was born on July 22, 1955, in Appleton, Wisconsin,[3][4][5] the son of Muriel Isabel (ne Sprissler; 19212012) and Dr. William Alfred Dafoe (19172014). "[4], Amy Madigan originally read for Reva, Cody's sister, and told Hill and Silver that she wanted to play the role of McCoy which, she remembers, "was written to be played by an overweight male who was a good soldier and really needed a job. [147] Dafoe worked with Wes Anderson for a third time with the comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel (also 2014), featuring as the henchman of Adrien Brody's character alongside an ensemble cast led by Ralph Fiennes. (Laughs)[15]. They were married on March 25, 2005. The two didn't work together again for nearly four decades, when Hill wrote a part for Dafoe in his 2022 western Dead for a Dollar, in which he plays opposite Christoph Waltz. Daily, and Deborah Van Valkenburgh. *Real* dumb if you think you can pull this off. [16], Dafoe made his film debut in a supporting role in Michael Cimino's 1980 epic Western film Heaven's Gate. Hill met Lane in New York City and she auditioned for him in black leather pants, a black mesh top and high-heeled boots. There's this whole wave of insult comedy. "Walter really liked the idea because it had Tom Cody winning at all costs." [11], When it came to casting the movie, Hill wanted to go with a young group of relative unknowns. married to Giada Colagrande (2005present), This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Willem-Dafoe, Turner Classic Movies - Biography of Willem Dafoe. The Damen Avenue stop (Blue line, at Damen, North, and Milwaukee avenues) was used. [65][66] The film performed poorly at the box office, but has since been branded as being a cult film. He's also a tough son-of-a-bitch. 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. This was the fastest ever greenlight Hill had received and he put it down to the box office success of 48 Hours. [76][77] Conversely, critic A. O. Scott wrote that his performance was "uninspired and secondhand". I was told by Joel Silver that the sequel was going to be set in the snow, and the following film would be set in the desert. He was the only actor I found who was right for the part a striking combination of toughness and innocence. There was a true Godardian dialectic going on between artifice and reality. And Tom Cody will be the football hero. [4], Gross says Hill did not want the film to be especially violent there would be no blood and no one would die. But when expanding it to a bigger scale, it changed. He was used to working with actors who had experience like Nick Nolte or David Carradine. [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. [15] He continued his work with the group into the 2000s, well after establishing himself as a Hollywood film star. [19] In 1982, Dafoe starred as the leader of an outlaw motorcycle club in the drama The Loveless, his first role as a leading man. That whole scene was a Walter thing. William James Dafoe (/dfo/;[1] July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Gross says that Jeff Berg (Walter's agent), Larry Gordon and Michael Eisner, head of production at Paramount, "got into some kind of a fight when the script was finished. We went further with that, perhaps, than we should have. To avoid having his role in the film prematurely revealed, Dafoe wore a cloak on-set to conceal his appearance from being outed publicly. [3], The Streets of Fire script concluded with the expectation that Streets of Fire will be followed by The Long Night, Book Two in The Adventures of Tom Cody. [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. [71] Dafoe received numerous awards and nominations for his performance, including his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. But he was one of Joel's dear friends, and he ended up making a bunch of movies for Disney. I just wasn't that sharp. You just frame them, give them circumstances, and that character will happen. You've got to be careful because you've got to work with what you have, not just for vanity's sake, but I think the best part of being an actor sometimes is the opportunity to transform yourself superficially, and deeply. He then narrated Australian documentarian Jennifer Peedom's documentary Mountain. He was also nominated for his portrayal of the 19th-century painter Vincent van Gogh during his last years in At Eternitys Gate (2018). What happened was that all of the people that made Streets of Fire left Universal Studios and went to 20th Century Fox. [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. Dafoes credits from 2019 included The Lighthouse, about two lighthouse keepers in the 1890s; Motherless Brooklyn, a crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem; and Togo, a Disney drama about the Great Race of Mercy, in which dog-sled teams were used to distribute medicine during a diphtheria epidemic in Alaska in 1925. [84] Dafoe lent his voice and likeness to the James Bond video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004) as the villain Nikolai Diavolo. "[26], Jay Scott wrote in The Globe and Mail that "when Streets of Fire is speeding by like Mercury on methedrine, the rush left in its wake cancels out questions of content. [8] He recalled in 2009, "My five sisters raised me because my father was a surgeon, my mother was a nurse and they worked together, so I didn't see either of them much. The Hollywood they make movies about." [36] While the film was negatively received, Dafoe's performance was lauded by some critics; Peter Travers of Rolling Stone felt he gave a "disciplined performance" and Janet Maslin thought he was "harrowingly good". In the drama Pavilion of Women, he played an American priest living in China who falls in love with a local married woman (played by the film's screenwriter Luo Yan) while giving her son a Western education. [114][115] Roger Ebert commended Dafoe's and Gainsbourg's performances as being "heroic and fearless". During an interview, he said that half of his family puts the emphasis on the first syllable of the surname while the other half emphasizes the second syllable. Their son, Jack, was born in 1982. [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". [4] Diane Lane read for the part when she was 18. That was in our headsthere's the past and there's the future, sort of. I did it in two days. The structural advantage of the old studio system we didn't have. Dafoe recalled in 2010, "We were having lunch and I said, 'Do you want to get married tomorrow?'" To the point where I thought it was going to do well. Steinman later recalled thinking the script was 'terrible', but he thought the film was going to be a big hit, in part because of the enthusiasm of Joel Silver: [He said] this movie is about visuals. - Michael Par plays a biker who agrees to rescue his ex-girlfriend (a rocker played by Diane Lane) from kidnappers (led by Willem Dafoe). [5] An additional district, Ardmore, also appears in the film, but it may be a separate municipality as it is not prefaced with "the". 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. 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! [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. "post 4 screen shots of your comfort movie Streets of Fire (1984) Avec Willem Dafoe jeune qui porte une salopette en cuir (oui)" [5] Hill was so impressed with her work on the film that he wrote additional scenes for her during the shoot. "[4], When the script was finished, they sent it to Paramount. They kind of saw it worked in the world of an MTV video."[8]. [73] He then starred opposite Haley Joel Osment in Edges of the Lord, playing a compassionate priest helping a young Jewish boy pose as a Catholic to protect him during Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland. He has frequently collaborated with filmmakers Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Lars von Trier, Julian Schnabel, Wes Anderson, and Robert Eggers. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him No. I've always wondered why Walter has never wanted to work with me again. [160][161] His final film of the year was the monster film The Great Wall, a Chinese-American co-production directed by Zhang Yimou starring Matt Damon as a European mercenary in China defending the Great Wall of China from a horde of monsters, in which Dafoe played a former adventurer working as a teacher in China. Dafoe was an early member of experimental theater company The Wooster Group, which he is credited as co-founding in the 1970s. There was tremendous love and confidence. Walter proudly considers himself a capitalist, so he suggested we do the latter. [141] The game polarized reviewers, although Dafoe and Page's performance were widely praised. Dafoe played a cold, domineering English professor who has a strained relationship with his family. [13], After attending Appleton East High School, Dafoe studied drama at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee,[14] but left after 18 months to join the experimental theater company Theatre X in Milwaukee, before moving to New York City in 1976. So I wrote this song that I loved and I sent it to them and he and Joel, I remember, left me a great message saying, I hate you, you bastard, I love this song. Gross says he and Hill were also influenced by the teen films of John Hughes. In downtown LA. The film was adapted from the novel of the same name and depicts his struggle with various forms of temptation throughout his life. [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. AKA: Streets of Fire (eng), Streets of Fire 1984 (eng) Movie Rating:6.7 / 10 (22407) [ Tonight is what it means to be young. ] Bigelow was dating David Giler, a collaborator and friend of Hill at the time. We learned later that, I believe, Eisner rejected it on the grounds that it was too similar to Indiana Jones. Willem Dafoe is a 67 years old American actor from Appleton, Wisconsin. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. "So we had the approval of sort of picking the person that Francis Ford Coppola picked. It was made at Universal, so they owned the rights to the story. [5] However, the song was sung for the film by Winston Ford, whose vocals were lip-synched by Jackson in the movie. [191] They have since worked together on her films Before It Had a Name and A Woman. 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. [43] In his next starring role, Paul Schrader's drama Light Sleeper, Dafoe played John LeTour, a lonely, insomniac, New Yorker working as a delivery man for a drug supplier, who is played by Susan Sarandon. And then it didn't, and that was sad. More impressive. Se7en's taking place in another world. ", "Light Sleeper Movie Review & Film Summary (1992)", "Did She Use Her Body As a Murder Weapon? [41] He was due to star opposite Joan Cusack in the comedy Arrive Alive in 1991, but the film was canceled during production. "[4], They submitted the script to Universal executive Bob Rehme on a Friday (in January 1983) and by the end of the weekend, the studio had given them the go-ahead to make the film. Omissions? [79] Steven Scaife at Vice wrote that Dafoe's Goblin "represents everything thats fun about superhero villains, as well as everything thats great about Raimi's campy films", also commending Dafoe's voice and body language, which helped overcome the bulky Green Goblin costume that he compared to that of a Power Rangers villain. 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. Gross says they wanted Tom Cruise and made him an offer, but he had already accepted another role. [158] In the same year, Dafoe reprised his voice role as Gill, a Moorish idol fish, from Finding Nemo in its sequel Finding Dory. As Tom storms out, Ellen follows and the two embrace in the rain. stunts (uncredited) Terry Leonard . Hill was unhappy with that score and liked music Cooder had written for Stroker Ace which the director of that film had not wanted to use.[21]. 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. [23], Dafoe's sole film release of 1986 was Oliver Stone's Vietnam War film Platoon, gaining him his widest exposure up to that point for playing the compassionate Sergeant Elias Grodin. I think that bothered Walter. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It will be the first in a series of adventures of an action hero he's had it in his mind to create for a long time. . Following tensions between Schechner and other members after they started staging their own productions outside of the group, Schechner left and the remaining members (including LeCompte and her ex-boyfriend Spalding Gray) renamed themselves The Wooster Group. His director's chair was made out of leather and on the back of it read "Lone Wolf". Rick Moranis, Diane Lane, and Willem Dafoe in the opening scene to 1984's Streets of Fire. Dafoe, the son of a surgeon and a nurse, was one of seven children. Um, there were a couple of things in the narrative that I felt went out that probably should have stayed in. [87] Dafoe was next seen in the comedy-drama The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), his first of three films with director Wes Anderson. Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. And there were a few other things that contributed to that direction. [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. [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. "[5][9] Hill liked the idea and cast her. A world where it's raining all the time. Updates? 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. [24] He enjoyed the opportunity to play a heroic role and said the film gave him a chance to display his versatility, saying "I think all characters live in you. Raven confronts Tom and warns him that he will be coming for Ellen and for him, too. Tom and Raven duel using sledgehammers and their fists, with Tom ultimately being victorious. Always night, just about. [3] However, this presented unusual problems. [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. Reply . . [167] Also that year, he co-starred as Gerhard Hardman in a film adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective novel Murder on the Orient Express, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh;[168] and played Atlantean scientist Nuidis Vulko in a deleted role in Zack Snyder's Justice League. 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. Dafoe played a criminal who engages in a robbery with Cage's character before demonstrating his dark side. [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).