ANTICHRIST written and directed by Lars von Trier, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe. An E1 Film. 104 minutes. Opens Friday (November 13). For times, venues and trailers, see Movies.
For Antichrist star Willem Dafoe, it’s either saints or sinners.[rssbreak]
Ever since his turn as Jesus in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation Of Christ, directors have been casting the intense actor as either gooder-than-good (Platoon) or, more likely, evil (Shadow Of The Vampire, Spider-Man).
“I imagine it’s my physicality and my voice,” he says in his distinctively nasal voice, looking lean and compact and perfectly pleasant during an interview at the Toronto Film Festival. “People never quite know where I’m from. They can’t say, ‘This is a guy who votes this way and thinks this way.’ That allows me to make a good ‘other.'”
In Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, he plays an unnamed husband and therapist who’s grieving the death of his infant son. He uses cognitive behaviour therapy to help his distraught wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg), which involves visiting the source of her fears. But the therapy backfires, resulting in a waking nightmare involving confinement, genital torture (ouch!) and the kinds of extreme imagery associated with Hieronymus Bosch paintings.
He admits that making the film got under his skin.
“As I get older, things affect me more, which is funny, because you’d think it would be the other way around – that I’d get more used to them,” he smiles. “But I guess sometimes men get more sensitive as they get older. It’s a hormonal thing.”
He had fears about the film from the start, most having to do with how von Trier would shoot certain sections. He also wondered if they’d ever finish the project. After all, the director had begun the film to work through a serious depression.
“He was shaky emotionally,” says Dafoe. “People who don’t know him might think he’s this smartass, sarcastic, over-intellectual wunderkind, but that’s not true. He’s got a sincerity and commitment that’s hard to find.”
Dafoe also says that, initially, von Trier doubted the actor would take on the difficult role.
“He said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? My wife doesn’t think you’ll do it.'”
The reviews, at least for Dafoe and Gainsbourg (von Trier came under fire at Cannes), have been positive, with most critics pointing out the actors’ bravery.
“It’s not about being naked, about [showing your] genitals or not,” he says. “To do this movie, even fully dressed, required a certain leap of faith. Lars works without a lot of rehearsal, with a very loose camera and a very unflattering light, and he requires actors who are less interested in promoting themselves than in transforming themselves.
“If that’s brave, then fine. For me, it’s just the way I work the best.”
Interview Clips
On getting the role:
On whether he’s been in therapy himself:
On the lack of good roles for actors:
On the problem with typical well-crafted message movies:
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