There’s no getting around – Willem Dafoe has a very distinctive look. But, the actor claims, he was completely oblivious to it until a few years ago.
During an interview with Today, the Spider-Man: No Way Home star revealed he only realized he had a “distinctive face” after an encounter on the New York subway.
“A movie like [Spider-Man] is so widely seen that you can be in Timbuktu and people will recognize you,” he said. “And I’ve learned I have a distinctive face. Something that I didn’t know.”
His realization came after a close encounter with a gang on the subway, but they weren’t eyeing him up to rob him. “I always remember, I was on the subway years ago when New York was still pretty rough, and I was taking my kid by subway from Downtown to the Bronx,” he said. “And some guys got on the train… and they’re sitting there and they’re looking at me and they’re looking kinda rough and I think ‘Oh God, even with my son here, these guys are gonna rob me for money or something’.”
The men, instead, had recognized Dafoe, and that’s when he realized it. “Something bad is gonna happen,” he thought. “Because they were looking kinda mean and then they were looking at each other. Then I heard one guy say ‘Yeah, it’s got to be him. Nobody looks like that mother**ker’. That’s when I knew.”
Thankfully, Dafoe isn’t frosty about the encounter. After all, that distinctive look has earned him a spot as one of Hollywood’s most diverse actors. And perhaps his acting skill had a little something to do with it, too.
“I’m not ashamed,” he laughed. “Because I’m telling the story, aren’t I?”
Dafoe can currently be seen in the Yorgos Lanthimos film, Poor Things and recently reteamed with director Wes Anderson for Asteroid City. He’s also due to appear in the upcoming Nosferatu movie from Robert Eggers as well as Beetlejuice 2.
Want to read more about Willem Dafoe? Check out why Willem Dafoe didn’t want to return to Spider-Man just for a cameo and find out who Dafoe is playing in the upcoming Beetlejuice 2.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
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