Willem Dafoes 10 Most Eccentric Characters Ranked

Willem Dafoe’s 10 Most Eccentric Characters, Ranked

Willem Dafoe is one of the most dynamic and talented actors of this generation and is known for playing brilliantly eccentric characters.

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Willem Dafoe is one of the most brilliant acting talents in modern media, but what truly earns him a place in the spotlight is his notoriety for playing a wide range of eccentric characters. Some actors have charm, some actors have comedic chops, but Dafoe has a knack for choosing the strange and unusual when it comes to his roles.

Along with actors like Johnny Depp, his range of characters spans from sympathetic and tortured to disturbed and unsettling, with everything in between. Although he might be an acquired taste for some, there’s no denying Dafoe’s tremendous talent for these roles and he has practically made his career out of playing extreme personalities.

10 Gill (Finding Nemo)

Starting out with a bit of a lightweight on the list, there is a certain manic uneasiness with the angelfish in the dentist’s aquarium from Finding Nemo. At his base level, Gill has the essentials for a character a bit on the edge.

Dafoe brings to Gill a touch of Clint from Stephen Speilberg’s iconic Jaws, he’s a complex character who wears his war wounds openly as a sign of his experience with danger. He’s driven, committed, and toes the line of the dark side for a Disney character.

9 Vincent Van Gogh (At Eternity’s Gate)

Kirk Douglas, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Andy Serkis are just a few actors who have stepped into the shoes of the tragic and prolific Vincent Van Gogh, but Dafoe’s portrayal brings the artist to life better than anyone before. Like many of the artist’s paintings, his performance is colorful, eccentric, and expressive

Dafoe’s Van Gogh is moving, pure and simple. His performance of the man’s last days is absolutely heart-wrenching and filled with palpable anguish. It’s quite possibly the epitome of the term “tortured artist.”

8 The Rat (Fantastic Mr. Fox)

It’d be more shocking if Defoe didn’t voice a stop-motion murderous rat in an animated movie by Wes Anderson. It’s a character somewhat out of left field, but with Defoe’s pedigree for the strange and unusual, it only works to his benefit.

The character only makes a brief appearance, but he perfectly presents a switch-blade happy mercenary complete with a set of wild red eyes in the screentime he does get. Defoe’s delivery of his over-the-top death scene is almost Shakespearean in his eccentric way.

7 Mr. Lassen (The Simpsons)

Though not his only appearance with America’s favorite animated family, Dafoe’s take on the substitute teacher is one of the most intense guest-stars Springfield has ever known. If he’s got Bart Simpson nervous, he has to mean business.

The animators clearly took direct inspiration from Dafoe’s acting chops, and the actor certainly didn’t skip on providing the character with some unsettling tendencies either. Right from his first few seconds on screen, he’s a dangerous force who wears his razored personality on his sleeve. He has no fear, no shame, and no remorse.

6 Nathan Dawkins (Beyond Two Souls)

Researcher Nathan Dawkins is more of a vocal presence in this story-heavy drama from the makers of Heavy Rain, but to say Dafoe’s performance isn’t one of the game’s biggest selling points would be untrue. He toes the line between mentor and manipulator so seamlessly it deserves recognition.

Providing both the voice and the motion-capture for the character, Dafoe gets to shine on several levels while bringing the character to life through his expressions, presence, and vocal delivery. Honestly, few could have done the job better.

5 Ryuk (Death Note)

One of the main reasons anyone should check out Netflix’s Death Note adaptation is to see Dafoe’s perfect portrayal of Ryuk. Easily one of the scariest performances in the actor’s career, Dafoe’s voice and Ryuk’s nightmare-fuel form complement each other perfectly.

The film has been criticized for its blatant miscasting, but there’s only one actor who could do the Shinigami justice, and that was Willem Dafoe. Every word Ryuk utters is delivered with his sinister flavor and the gravelly voice hissing out of those pointy teeth is enough to give anyone chills.

4 Max Schreck (Shadow Of The Vampire)

Similar to Ryuk, it’s not the first time Dafoe has played a shadowy supernatural creature. Case in point, Shadow of the Vampire. Although the vamp in question is 100 percent fictional, the plot of the film was inspired by the making of Nosferatu. The film was one of the horror movies that changed the genre, and Defoe’s Orlock is an uncannily unnerving presence throughout the experience.

Dafoe’s portrayal as Max Schreck toes the line between brilliant and bizarre. As the actor loses himself into the role of the count, so does Defoe surrender himself to the spirals of method acting. Hopefully, he earns a genuine vampire role during his career.

3 Cob (Tales From Earthsea)

Never has a whisper been so terrifying. It might be an English-dubbed role, but Cob is one of the most chilling villains from Studio Ghibli, largely thanks to Dafoe’s vocal performance. Cob is a dark wizard who lives in a castle made out of dragon bones — it doesn’t get much more evil than that.

Everything about him positively drips with a black and sinister nature. With his husky voice, purple aura, and spells that can stop a victim’s heart instantly, he’d give Voldemort nightmares.

2 Thomas Wake (The Lighthouse)

In a role that won him even more acclaim, Thomas Wake is easily a contender for the actor’s most dynamic character to date. The shady elder wickie from Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse is definitely one of the film’s most frightening entities for a litany of reasons.

The biggest factor Thomas has going for him is Defoe’s ambiguity, though Robert Eggers’ directing is also to thank, and it’s unclear as to whether or not he’s friend, foe, malicious, or a figment of his partner’s imagination. Whether he’s real or a hallucination from Ephriam Winslow’s tortured conscience, he’s still a very disturbing character.

1 Green Goblin/Norman Osborne (Spider-Man)

If there’s one role that Willem Dafoe will forever be remembered for in the annals of film history, it’s the Green Goblin. His levels of outlandishness after Norman Osborn’s transformation into the Goblin, one of the things only comic fans usually know, ventures into nuclear territory, and it’s absolutely brilliant.

This version of the character is so over-the-top and malicious that it turns into the perfect representation of the character. Hopefully, he returns to reprise his role in the MCU, because after Dafoe’s performance as the character, any other actor might feel like a cheap imitation.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/willem-dafoe-most-eccentric-characters-ranked/

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