Willem Dafoe: Antichrist is misunderstood

Willem Dafoe thinks 'Antichrist' is misunderstood by audiences.

The 69-year-old actor starred opposite Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars von Trier's 2009 horror film – which tells the story of a couple grieving after the death of their child and features an infamous genital mutilation scene – and thinks it gets "misidentified" by viewers.

Dafoe told 'The Louis Theroux Podcast': "I think it gets misidentified because of some of its extremeness, but I think it really speaks to interesting things about women's power, men's fear of women, the struggle between the logical and the magical in life. There's lots of sexual politics in it, and it's not about misogyny at all."

The 'Nosferatu' actor added of Von Trier: "I think he identifies with the women more than the man. I can tell you because I play the straight, logical one in the movie.

"But I think he's genuinely curious and he's a great filmmaker. So, you know, the opening of that movie and the epilogue of that movie is great cinema."

Willem added that the divisive film was well-received when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

He said: "For cinephiles and for people that I'm interested in and have good dialogues with, they were interested in this movie. It's not set up as a crowd-pleaser."

Dafoe also described how Von Trier was battling depression as the movie was being made.

The 'Poor Things' actor recalled: "He used to say to me every day, 'Listen, I may not be there tomorrow, but I can direct you remotely from a trailer I have.'

"But he showed up every day. But he needed to tell me every day, me and Charlotte. It kind of breaks your heart. So, he's a guy that struggles with many things, but he's got a big heart and he also has given a lot to cinema."

Willem believes that the controversial legacy of 'Antichrist' typifies the lack of nuanced discussion surrounding modern movies.

He said: "Listen, there's this problem where we reduce these things that are very complex to kind of the warts, you know? And then that's what goes out.

"It's particularly a problem as real film criticism disappears and gives way to short form and TikTok influencers and all that. There's not the dialogue that some films of sophistication deserve.

"And you can say, 'Ah, shut up be an actor, make a movie,' but I think it's a problem because it's starved cinema a little bit, that the high-minded cinema actually makes way for the popular cinema."

Meanwhile, Dafoe also described how he lost out on a film role after appearing as Jesus in Martin Scorsese's controversial 1988 picture 'The Last Temptation of Christ'.

He said: "Down the road there was one project in particular that I was cast in and the studio un-cast me because they didn't like that I was associated with 'Last Temptation'.

"I don't want to do big crocodile tears about that because it could have been much worse, but I didn't feel it so much. I think most of the responsibility fell on Martin Scorsese.

"And I get censored on this, but I think it's really true that somewhere people think actors are a kind of a little whore-ish and they'll do whatever to get a good role or something.

"So they don't hold you responsible somehow. They really look to the director and the studio."