Even Willem Dafoe experiences fear of failure, and other lessons from 'Inside'

With a filmography that stretches back decades and includes movies as diverse as The Boondock Saints, The Lighthouse, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Spider-Man, Willem Dafoe is an accomplished actor who can't be easily typecast or pinned to any one role in particular. When this Mashable reporter asked Twitter users which Dafoe performance they think of first, the replies offered dozens of options. Turns out, this is pretty reflective of how fans greet Dafoe in person, naming any one of over a hundred performances he's committed to screen. 

"I must confess, I like that, because it doesn't make me feel stuck in one in one track," Dafoe said in an interview with Mashable for his new film, the claustrophobic drama Inside. "The idea that you can be seen in different ways. And that also there isn't one fixed appetite for people — it's nice. It's flexibility for them and flexibility for me." 

Since he's played everything from iconic supervillains to quirky heroes and Jesus Christ himself, it's impossible to guess what a Dafoe movie might contain. Inside features the acclaimed actor as an art thief who becomes trapped in the high-security apartment he’d hoped to rob. With no way out and no idea when anyone might return to this luxury apartment, Nemo (Dafoe) must survive on a fridge with only condiments and moldy crackers, no running water, and a heating system that seems out to punish him. Can he survive? Can he escape? Can his appreciation for artistic expression save him? 

Willem Dafoe on the alluring challenges of Inside

Much of Inside features Dafoe all alone. As a result, his performance largely relies on physical action over dialogue. That challenge appealed to him. "The premise is really good," Dafoe said. "It's a different kind of performing, because there aren't conventional scenes. There isn't a lot of dialogue." The screenplay by Ben Hopkins and director Vasilis Katsoupis also left opportunities for developing the specifics on set. This includes a scene where Nemo hears the '90s hit song “Macarena” and sings along despite his plight. He doesn't do the dance though. "I think it'd be a bit too cute," Dafoe explained. 

He was also interested in Katsoupis' plan to shoot Nemo's journey as it progressed, a rare thing in filmmaking. "I knew we were going to shoot in chronological order," Dafoe said, "Which is always really interesting, because then you don't worry so much about the past or the future. You don't anticipate the effects of scenes that will happen before or after. I don't usually anyway, I really believe you play a scene for a scene, but you're really liberated to take one step at a time. Make an action, have a reaction, react to that, react to that, make another action, boom, boom, boom, and then you get a rhythm and all of sudden, this narrative — that you don't necessarily even control — starts to lift you up. And you just try to serve it, you know?" 

"That's the best condition for a performer," Dafoe mused, "Because then you're really performing and you're not concerned so much about what stuff means as you're connected to the doing. You're connected to what's going on. You're connected to what's in the room. And I knew that how it was built, how it was proposed, Inside would be a great opportunity to experience that."

Willem Dafoe on the power of fear

With all that Dafoe has done as a performer, is there anything that still scares him in this craft? "Yes, many things," he said, considering. "I don't know what they are. I don't know that until they're in front of me, but sure. The nature of performing is every time you start, I swear to God, you have to ask yourself, 'How do I do this?' Because each time it's different; each project, it's different. Your role is different. What's required of you is different; your approach is different. The personalities you're collectively working with are different. So each time, you gotta say, 'How do we do this?' That's like going back to square one. And there's always some fear in that, of not knowing or failing or not doing well." 

"I think you're a fool if you aren't afraid," Dafoe said. "I can only think the opposite of being a little bit afraid is, 'I got this' — a kind of assurity. Fear comes out of not knowing. And I think working from a place of not knowing or uncertainty or questioning is obviously at the root of creative impulse. So, if you don't have that fear, you may have a kind of confidence, a kind of force, the kind of bravado. But you may lack a certain kind of — I don't know — soul searching or vulnerability."

"But then, after you repeatedly have that little trauma at the beginning of the movie," Dafoe continued, "You say, 'OK, I feel it, I honor it, but I know it doesn't kill me. So, I'll be with it and punch through. Or I'll slide through, and we'll get past this. And then we'll get in the groove again. And somewhere, you know, you'll be there again. The fear doesn't go away. It just gets familiar, and you know it won't kill you."

Inside opens in theaters March 17.