A long pour of Willem Dafoe

It’s been six years since I last spoke to Willem Dafoe. Back then, we talked angels and accents, devils and doubts — while explosions whizzed and crackled outside the window. It was Bonfire Night in London, but Dafoe’s stream of sparky observations managed to match the fireworks bang for blast. Today, smoke once again hangs in the air between us — but of a different flavour. For, this time around, the actor is describing a dram of that oh-so peaty scotch, Laphroaig.

Dafoe’s distinctive face is the latest to front the 240-year-old distillery’s ongoing ‘Unphorgettable’ series. It’s a good choice, as the actor is not only an utterly unique presence in front of the camera, but also, it turns out, in the blending lab. Along with senior whisky blender Sarah Dowling, the actor has recently created a limited-edition whisky that will drop next year after a short maturation period. It’s a spirit steeped in salt and sweetness — but with an unexpectedly light touch of smoke.

“That was the biggest surprise,” says Dafoe of the process. “Because I always thought that I liked something very peaty and smoky, you know? Something big! But the truth is, and I didn’t know this until they walked me through it, is that sometimes if the smoke is too strong, it can override the subtler tones. So, in the tasting, I started to appreciate that those subtler tones would only come up when there was a little less smoke, a little less peat.”

Dafoe, by his own admission, is not a big drinker — yet whisky would always be his spirit of choice (no ice, naturally). But that’s to be expected; it runs in his blood. Among the genetic malts that make up his family blend, Dafoe has hints of German, Irish, and Swiss-French ancestry. His grandmother, however, was Scottish and the first time he travelled outside of his native US was on a trip to Glasgow. His parents, by contrast, were American through and through. “Eisenhower Republicans,” nods Dafoe.

“Good, sweet, hard-working, god-fearing people,” he adds. “But, though I have a different kind of life to them, I did learn a certain type of work ethic from them. I learned the value of humility and the importance of compassion. They were sweet people. Sweet, sweet people.”

The actor has drawn on his childhood as part of the partnership with Laphroaig — nothing as neat as whisky, of course, but rather recalling early memories of his own storytelling spirit and pluck. For, even as a child, Dafoe prized adventure, and one of his most enduring memories involves an expedition he mounted into the wardrobe of his childhood bedroom.

“I remember being very excited watching the early moon landings,” the actor recalls, “watching astronauts confined in a capsule. And, as a child, I naturally asked myself: Could I do that? What would it feel like? The closest I could come to approximate it was to stay in the closet in my room for two days. Of course, in reality, I probably didn’t make it very long, but the impulse was there. And people might think that’s strange, but it was the first stirrings of wanting to create situations that tested myself, sort of a performance art exercise.”

It wouldn’t be the last time Dafoe’s wardrobe would make an impression. Whether it’s his red carpet tailoring or avant-garde big screen looks, the actor may have recently turned 70, but he’s also still turning heads with his fashions — not that he’d ever attempt to classify or categorise his own sense of style.

“Perhaps that is my style!” he laughs. “But no, I let other people do that. There’s some stuff that I really respond to, but some stuff that I just don’t feel comfortable in. Look, I’m an actor, so I appreciate a costume. But, at the same time, I try not to worry too much about what I’m presenting, or what people think of me outside of the work. Like anyone, I’m guided by comfort — and styles that don’t telegraph too much of who I am.”

"I try not to worry too much about what I’m presenting..."

His characters largely take care of that. Dafoe has been acting for almost half a century, in over 150 films, and his back catalogue of characters is as varied, intense, and layered as a decent whisky collection. With roles in Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, he’s got the bold, bombastic, all-American stuff on his shelf, but there’s also the fresher, more floral pastels of his work with Wes Anderson, and the deeper, complex collaborations with horror auteur Robert Eggers. A relatively recent turn, in Yorgos Lanthimos’ acclaimed Poor Things, even saw Dafoe play his first Glaswegian.

But his latest role took Dafoe to more rural Scotland — to shoot a short film for Laphroaig. Titled The Taste, it’s a suitably abstract, eccentric featurette — all minimalism, monochrome sets and tongue-twisting tale-telling. To distill the essence of the actor’s spirit, the distillery turned to legendary director Tim Pope, the visionary responsible for the iconic music videos of David Bowie, Paul Weller, and Iggy Pop. But Dafoe is comfortable in this world, too — his wife of 20 years, Giada Colagrande, performs her contemporary groove-inflected world music under the moniker AGADEZ. Dafoe says he was listening to ‘Tefnut’, a song from her latest album, Queendoms Unplugged, earlier today. “It’s a theme album about goddesses,” he explains, “and each cut is about a goddess from a different culture.”

The last movie Dafoe watched was also Italian. Agon is the debut of Giulio Bertelli, who screened the film at this year’s Venice Film Festival. “It’s a fictional account of three aspiring female athletes,” says Dafoe, “and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It really surprised me, particularly because it was three stories, and I don’t usually like that form, but he weaved it in a way that was beautiful. It really looked at the human aspect and the toll and the partly dark side and difficulties of being an athlete in these modern times.”

Unsurprisingly, Dafoe himself is also currently working. His output has always been unrivalled, with six films releasing this year, five last year, and seven the year before that. Details of his current project — for which his great, tousled beard stands at odds with the sharp moustache he wore for Laphroiag — are under wraps. But the actor reveals the week to come will involve much sword-fighting and horse-riding. “Both things that I love to do!”. They’re also skills he can add to an already long and masterful list, one that includes learning to knit for The Lighthouse, and perfecting his post-impressionist painting for an Oscar-nominated portrayal of Vincent van Gogh.

Dafoe’s, then, is a well-strung bow. But, while the actor may be one-of-a-kind, and more singular than a single malt, he doesn’t often consider his public persona. And, whether he’s practising his lines, pouring a whisky, or aligning himself with a legendary distillery (from one of his several ancestral homelands), he never stops to dwell on how he’ll be remembered.

“You can’t think about that,” he says. “You really can’t. You’ve got to discipline yourself not to worry about the result, and instead just keep your eye on the prize. And the prize is the process, the making, the engagement. So I don’t want to be smarty-pants about it, but really if you’re thinking about how you want to be remembered, I think you’re not living. Because the future doesn’t exist. The future is made in the present.”

Learn more about Willem Dafoe's work with Laphroaig here.

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