Willem Dafoe and 'The Mustang' Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
The Lighthouse was one of Willem Dafoe's biggest acting challenges: Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are onscreen for almost every second of Robert Eggers' film, shot in harsh weather on a barely hospitable stretch of the North Atlantic. But Dafoe says in our interview that he delighted in the challenge of having nowhere to hide.
Then we talk with Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, whose film The Mustang is one of the most underrated of 2019. The Mustang stars Matthias Schoenaerts as a Nevada prison inmate whose life is changed when he joins a program to train wild horses. Among other things, she talks about why "cinema is to be seen in cinema."
Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:
1:25: Willem Dafoe interview begins with him explaining how he was cast in The Lighthouse.
3:30: How our feelings about Dafoe's The Lighthouse character, Thomas Wake, change during the film: "You see his various strategies to dominate or ameliorate or find some sort of… peace or sense of security."
7:00: How to play a potentially unlikeable character: "In order to not have them be a cartoon or not have them be just a mouthpiece to express a point of view or explain something, to really represent them, you have to take their side."
10:28: "You know, the challenges are the blessings."
12:50: We make Willem Dafoe laugh, by asking him what he's learned.
15:40: How Willem Dafoe has fun.
18:00: Check out MovieMaker.com/Subscriptions and use offer code XMASMM.
19:10: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre interview begins.
19:45: She tells us why prison movies are so compelling.
23:00: "The man sees through the eyes of the animal how aggressive he is, and the animal teaches him patience, respect and trust."
30:20: Did being French help her see the American criminal justice system more clearly for The Mustang?
34:55: "We need to preserve cinema. Cinema should be seen in cinema, not on a laptop or in a plane or an iPhone which is even more terrifying."
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