Willem Dafoe shares with THR what it is about Yorgos Lanthimos that sets him apart as a director while at the 'Kinds of Kindness' premiere. Plus, he expresses why costumes, like the orange Speedo, are really important for a character.
00:00This is your latest collaboration with Yorgos.
00:02What is it about him as a director that sets him apart?
00:05Oh, God.
00:07Well, his approach, it's just very specific.
00:13It's his world.
00:14He makes the world and he gives you a beautiful setup.
00:17And he also understands very much, I think, how performers work.
00:22So he's fun to be in the room with.
00:24He's inspiring.
00:25Yeah, for sure.
00:25And how would you compare this Yorgos-Emma collab?
00:29Compared to working on poor things together.
00:32Well, my job is different in each one.
00:34Even within Kinds of Kindness, in each movie, what I'm required to do is different.
00:42I mean, how I'm supposed to function in the story is different.
00:45So it's a lot of different experiences, really.
00:50Because I think the characters and my involvement is always defined by how you're placed in the story.
00:58But I love working with both of them.
01:02And both very different movies, but both really good experiences.
01:06For sure.
01:06Well, I know in this movie, the Orange Speedo had a lot of people talking.
01:10How much convincing did it take you to be in that?
01:12Or was that your idea?
01:13How convincing?
01:13I wouldn't call it an idea, but because each character has to be different, a good way to make each one different without having it be like a shtick or a big disguise or anything like that.
01:27An actor's show.
01:28So costumes were very important because that kind of defines who they are.
01:34And the costumes were fantastic in this movie.
01:39And we worked on finding them for a very long time.
01:44So something like an Orange Speedo can really tell you who the character is.
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