November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

Media Diet: Willem Dafoe

(Page 2 of 2)

September/October 1996
A.S. Hamrah, Utne Reader 
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Are there any current trends in the media that trouble you?

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Now that the studios own multiplex theaters, it disturbs me that you'll find ten Mission: Impossibles playing and only two other films. Foreign films in particular are getting squeezed out, even in their own countries sometimes. I was in Germany when Jurassic Park came out, and it was in practically every theater. Also, entertainment reporting is focused too much on what the films' grosses are. People have stopped going to see art; they're just going to see money. A lot of people go to see Twister or Mission: Impossible begrudgingly, but they have to see them! This sort of thing makes cinema top heavy. The directors are forced to take a back seat to stars and concept. That's understandable from the studio's perspective, but somewhere it bleeds the adventure out of it. There's no sense of discovery or excitement anymore.

I'm also disturbed by our culture's saturation with personalities as products. When you take a guy and put him so far forward so quick, he's destroyed. Then you have no maturity in the artist. As a result, no one's really interested in maturity, in growth or range. We just want the youngest, the newest, the hottest.


What are the sources of your best and most original ideas?

Being surrounded by creative people. It's hard to trace these things because I never think in terms of ideas; I think of myself as a doer. If someone else has an idea and I'm the doer, I have fewer expectations and I can have more fun doing it because I don't have an agenda. I feel more fluid and more open to impulse and everything around me. In the Wooster Group I don't have a special place in the constellation, I'm just someone who helps get the stuff done. That can be very exhilarating.


When are you most creative?

Early in the morning. More philosophically, I guess I'd say I'm most creative when I'm in movement and slightly ahead of myself, when I'm reaching for something and don't quite know what it is.

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