A Quote by Willem Dafoe

I try to do as many of my own stunts as possible. If you keep on taking yourself out of the role you play, you lose the thread of the character. — © Willem Dafoe
I try to do as many of my own stunts as possible. If you keep on taking yourself out of the role you play, you lose the thread of the character.
'Shivalinga' was a tough project - I did my own stunts in the film. I actually enjoyed it, as I play a character with many layers. It was challenging to switch between the many phases of the character.
A good undercover agent stays as close to the truth as possible, as close to your own personality and your own values as possible. This is the way you stay in character - you try to be yourself.
The point of acting is to hide yourself and get lost in character. To play the same character in eighteen movies would be defeating the purpose I believe so I try to keep a little bit of diversity.
Because I find writing painful, I try to get it over with as fast as possible. But I write every day, or I lose the thread.
You try to get the feel of any role, but it's much more difficult in the case of Christ because everyone has their own personal image of Him. It's a role you take on, knowing that no matter how you play it, you are going to disappoint many.
My approach is literally what is being told in the scene. I try to be as real as possible, and I try to find my own truth in it and figure out how to best serve each character.
I'd like to play a guy who doesn't think so much. I'd like a character whose words come out before he thinks about it. I want a character who is just kind of dumb in that way. A guy who doesn't have too many dangerous, devious ideas. It would be fun to play a role like that.
If you keep your attention in the body as much as possible, you will be anchored in the Now. You won't lose yourself in the external world, and you won't lose yourself in your mind. Thoughts and emotions, fears and desires may still be there to some extent, but they won't take you over.
Many a play is like a painted backdrop, something to be looked at from the front. An Ibsen play is like a black forest, somethingyou can enter, something you can walk about in. There you can lose yourself: you can lose yourself. And once inside, you find such wonderful glades, such beautiful, sunlit places.
Keep evolving. Keep reading plays, doing plays, but also be sure to expand your horizons as much as possible. You only have yourself to bring to your work. You are your palette, so give yourself as many colors as possible to paint with.
When I get a role, I try to delve as deeply as possible into the character.
It's hard to say what you learn acting a part. You find bits and pieces of yourself that are inside the character you play. You locate the relatable aspects of that character to your own life. So, in a way, every part you play forces you to discover things about yourself you might not have learned otherwise.
I really believed that if I could play that character, who is grounded in the earth and the history of the United States - not the kind of role I usually play - it would help me change the perception out there and my own perception of what I can accomplish as a performer.
I don't do stunts and I don't think many actors do. For an actor to say they do their own stunts I don't think is very respectful of the profession of stunt men and women.
I'm kind of hard to double, but I did have one guy for a while as my double. I kind of like to do my own stunts, though, because it's just the overall experience. Sometimes you have to step aside when the stuff gets really dangerous, but I feel like sometimes you have to do your own stunts to make the role seem real.
I try to look at every role the same way, regardless of whether the character is real or the character is a fantasy. I always start from myself, because you have to know yourself first.
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