Willem Dafoe on Scotch, Meeting Robert Eggers for the First Time, and the Perils of AI Moviemaking

What, exactly, is a “character actor?” Thankfully, the film gods blessed us with Willem Dafoe to answer that question. The legendary performer, who turned 70 this July, embodies the term. In a career spanning forty-five years and over 150 film credits, he is perennially gravitating towards bold, eccentric roles—often in supporting capacity. He might not be the star of any given show, but he usually ends up stealing it.

“The nightmare for an actor is to never have your feet held to the fire,” the four-time Academy Award nominated actor tells Esquire. “You got to turn up the heat otherwise nothing happens.”

It’s a sentiment familiar to fans of Islay Scotch. The whisky style—born of a boggy, windswept Hebridean isle—is characterized by smoky liquids likened to bonfires, seared seaweed, and smoldering ash. Fittingly, it is Dafoe’s drink of choice when it comes to hard liquor. In fact, he is partial to drams of Laphroaig 10, among the smokiest expressions you could ever pour. As with any powerful character actor, a little goes a long way.

“I enjoy small bits of bolder liquids; no ice, thank you,” he says.

Today, Dafoe and Laphroaig weave that conceptual chemistry into a cinematic collaboration called “The Taste.” The sensual digital short plays up his signature elan and whimsy as he struggles to find words for a truly ineffable liquid. It marks the beginning of an extended partnership between the actor and the 240-year-old Scotch brand, which might just culminate in a limited-release single malt in the months ahead.

In the meantime, Esquire caught up with Dafoe on the eve of his Laphroaig launch party in London. He might not be able to fully describe the liquid in his glass, but he did shed light on the celebrity he’d most like to share it with, along with upcoming projects and the scourge of AI.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Esquire: Boldness has been a through-line across your career. What is it that attracts you to these sorts of roles?

Willem Dafoe: That’s hard to say. In retrospect, you kind of forget why you did them. And also, in the ones where you feel bold, you probably aren’t so bold. And the ones that you don’t feel so bold are probably bold. The irony is when people brag about being courageous, they probably aren’t. The hardest thing to do is when you have little to work with. But when you have a lot to work with and it threatens you, or it pushes you or challenges you, that’s the place that I’d like to be. Not because I’m a wild, great adventurer, but I see that’s where the best results come; there’s more possibility to really engage.

You’ve largely avoided sequels in your oeuvre, but is there one character you feel most compelled to bring back to life?

There was a movie some years ago called Victory based on a Joseph Conrad novel. That’s a film that I would like to do over again, because there was something in it about the sensibility and the mentality of the central character I played that I was too young to understand. Now, I understand things that I didn’t understand then, and I would love to do that role again. It wasn’t so much an age thing. I didn’t understand something fundamental: The character was called Axel Heyst, and he really wanted to drop out of society. He said, “I’m done with doing.” I don’t feel that, but I understand it. I didn’t then.

Is that generally a key element for you in taking on a role, being able to understand the motivations of a character?

Well, you don’t know a character until you get there. You just have some inklings of what is going to be required. But even that’s not reliable. You have to have certain things that pull you, that interest you, so you can go deeper and you can learn something. That will engage you in a way that will give you a stake. That isn’t made—it isn’t cemented—until the process of actually making the movie.

Legendary character actor Willem Dafoe has teamed up with Laphroaig.

What director are you most keen to work with right now?

I hate to name drop. It’s good advertising, and maybe they’ll read it and come calling. I tend to work with people that I’ve really enjoyed working with before. There are many directors that I return to. As far as other directors, every time I see a beautiful movie I make a note and that director is on my radar. Sometimes you just don’t fit in the world they’re making. Be patient and you throw your hat in the ring sometimes.

A classic example: I was walking down the street in New York, and I saw a poster for a small film called The Witch by Robert Eggers. I thought, I got time, let me check this out. It was totally impulsive. I entered the theatre and was like, “Wow, this guy’s a filmmaker.” I went home and told my wife about it, and the next day we saw the movie again. I felt even deeper about it. Then I called my manager and I said, “Get me a meeting with this guy.” We met, we got along very well. And now I’m doing my fourth film with him.”

Have you been a Scotch drinker for a long time?

I don’t drink that much. I’m not being shy. But if I do drink, you know, super alcohol, it’ll be Scotch or maybe grappa.

Is there a deeper connection you feel to the land and the liquid?

The first time I ever traveled overseas, I went to Scotland. I was a kid, and the first thing I thought when my feet touched the ground was: Something feels familiar here. I feel at home. The land spoke to me, and it must be genetic because my grandmother was from Glasgow. “The Taste” depicts that sort of familiarity that’s found when exploring Laphroaig. It’s the flavors, and how they come together. One of the reasons I did this is because they had good ideas for this film. They gleaned a lot from personal details about my life. They wanted to make some kind of comparison to the product, using me as material.

There’s certainly a quirky nature to it. Kind of like a peated fever dream. Did your time in the theatre help inform some of the whimsy and physicality?

I performed with a small company, where I grew up in Wisconsin, called Theatre X. Then later I performed with the Wooster Group. We made original pieces, but they were very physical pieces. Because this wasn’t traditional theatre. There were huge sections of movement and dance. To me, acting is about doing. And I love doing things physically. That’s my tradition. I didn’t do too much physical stuff in this. But that’s where I live.

What celebrity or colleague would you most want to enjoy a dram of Laphroaig 10 with?

That’s a tough one because there are people I would like to do that with, but I’m not sure they would like to do it with me. Someone like Bob Dylan. But I think I’d like to share it with someone that I worked with before, on a theatre piece: Mikhail Baryshnikov.

The internet is circulating a rumor that you don’t own a cellphone. Is this true?

I wish it were true. There’s a lot of misinformation out there right now. I try not to think about these things. Part of the work of being a liberated person is to not worry too much about what other people are thinking about you. I could go crazy if I went on social media. I don’t have any of that. But in this world now, there are plenty sites with my name attached to them and people think that I have something to do with them. I have nothing to do with them, okay? Now it’s getting quite bad—not to turn this into a gripe session—but now they’re releasing fake trailers of movies that aren’t even made yet, with AI. The thing about AI—they always make me look 130 years old. I’m not that craggy, guys.

Dafoe’s collaboration was announced with a short film.

It’s a busy time for you. What will we see you in next?

I have a lot of projects. There’s a movie that just came out based on a Walter Mosley novel called The Man In My Basement. I shot a movie in Greece called The Birthday Party. I don’t know when that’s out. There’s a film showing at the New York Film Festival next week called Late Fame, and I suspect fairly soon that will be out. And then I made a movie about the summiting of Everest called Tenzing with a great Tibetan actor [Genden Phuntsok] and Tom Hiddleston. We filmed that in Nepal, and we also shot in New Zealand on the South Island on Aoraki. We took a helicopter everyday to set. It was a great adventure. I’m giving you quite a list, but I’m also working on Werewolf with Robert Eggers.

And what’s next with Laphroig? Can we expect a collaborative liquid, perhaps?

That’s already happening. One of the things that they did when they proposed this to me was we did a tasting. Working with Sarah Dowling, the senior whisky maker, she would get my comments. There were like eight different degrees of smokiness and peat and that sort of thing. She would take notes and I would respond to the [different expressions]. And now they’re going to make a whisky that was guided by my tastes. So, that will be special. It was kind of a blind tasting. One had more peat. One had more smoke. One had more minerality. But if you back off on those things a little bit, you get undertones. And that’s what I appreciated. So I guess maybe my palate is maturing. We’ll see [where it ends up]. Because I haven’t tasted the final product.