[PIFF] Willem Dafoe and wife bring "A Woman" to Busan

Willem Dafoe [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe, known for playing strong or eccentric characters, has brought a softer side to him to the 15th Pusan International Film Festival.

Dafoe, visiting Korea's second-largest city of Busan for the international premiere of his latest film "A Woman" directed by his Italian wife Giada Colagrande, said at a press meeting on Friday that his character is "reactive," "ambiguous," and "hiding a secret."

"But after all, it is about a woman," Dafoe said of the movie where he plays a novelist who finds himself falling for a woman while suffering from the tragic death of his wife.

"A Woman" is Colagrande's third feature film which has won her third-time participation in the Venice Film Festival.

Below are excerpts from the press meeting where Willem Dafoe and Giada Colagrande spoke about "A Woman" and working together as a couple.

Q: How did you two come to collaborate in "A Woman"?
Willem Dafoe: I remember seeing "Open my heart" before I knew Giada. I was quite taken by the film. I thought there was a filmmaker behind this film. I was very interested. I got the opportunity to meet her, I met her, got to know her. And we made a second film together called "Before It had a Name." And she invited me to work on this one as well. I think she's got a really unique vision. It's quite personal, it's quite vigorous and I like working with her.

Q: "A Woman" is about a man falling in love with another woman after his wife dies so how was it working together for the two of you since you are a married couple?
Dafoe: To work together is great. Not only as I said I like the way Giada is working but I also I like the cinema she envisions. When you work with a director, you're always looking for some sort of trust and simplicity and shorthand and we have that automatically because we know each other very well. Nobody is quite working the way she is and I like that so I was always happy to be on set. Since she has a very clear view of how to work, she's very precise and very demanding so I would basically submit to her will and try to do what she wanted to do.
Colagrande: I always say that I like to work with material that I know very and belongs to me because I think my work is very intimate and personal so it always starts from an interior side. So Willem is certainly part of the material that I know very well and belongs to me. Or I belong to him. (laugh) So that really helps me to envision what a character is going to become because when I start thinking of the character that will be Willem's character, it takes shape. But it also helps me to realize to make it concrete in a very direct way because as he said, we can work in a deeper way without too much fuss about it, and get straight with the point. And he also helps me with other actors with the direct approach. He's a very flexible and available actor, and I know that he's like that on other sets as well. Willem will become the actor that the directors wants him to become and that helps any director a lot because it cuts the way short and gives you material that you can manipulate in a more interesting way than you would normally do.

10: You're noted for playing roles with very strong characters but in "A Woman," you played a role which is much softer, to the extent that it makes you look weak.
Dafoe: That's true. He's a reactive character, ambiguous, he's a man that's hiding a secret so that's not an active part to play in the story. He plays a very important role but after all, it is called "A Woman." (smiles)

Q: What do you look for when choosing a new role?
Dafoe: As far as selecting roles, it's always changing but I think the one thing that's fairly consistent is that I'm very much attracted to strong directors, passionate directors, people that are on fire to express their cinema. I'm less interested in exercises of style and my work has a job so I require more adventure and stimulation than that.

Q: Does having experience playing such a large variety of roles help when you take on new roles or is it difficult every time?
Dafoe: I think that each time I approach a film, it's true that it's like the first time. Because the problems are different. Every project is different. And I like resetting my thought process and my intentions and my expectations each time. I really like to start work from zero. Having said that, I do know that as I get older, I don't know about experience but I've just done more films so I feel like I can be more reckless in my choices sometimes. Because when I was younger and if I made a bad choice, it would kill my opportunity in the future. I feel that so that's the good part of getting older. But the contradiction is that I'm still trying out new situations. I'm trying like it's the first time.

Q: What is your exposure to Asian films and filmmakers over the years?
Dafoe: I have worked in Asia, I would like to work in Asia again, and there are many fillmmakers I admire so I'm always looking for opportunities to work in other situations because it frees you from your cultural orientation. So I'm looking for those opportunities always of course. The conditions of whether I work on a film depend very much on language and certain aspects.

10: Where do you get your inspiration for your films?
Colagrande: I always sense value in American film noir from the 1940s, that's always my favorite genre and a point of reference especially with stories and characters. I always find that alive in me. In this case, I also looked at hitchcock's "Rebecca." And there's a particular part of horror-ish kind films that are about female madness that I adore. I started watching them when I was very little. As far as it goes for storywise, the story is almost never the most important element in a movie for me. In film noir, what I always try to make is contrast. The use of the light can show the emotions. And I think "A Woman" is a lot about this, a lot about expressing female duality through the application of light and darkness, and what can happen to a woman in certain conditions and a loss of identity. So our female character or "woman" embraces paranoia and eventually madness.

Q: Do you know much about Korean movies?
Colagrande: As far as korean cinema, yes, I've been watching Korean movies for many years at film fests. One director I remember the most is Kim Ki-duk who I adore. And I hope he makes a movie soon since I heard he's working as a farmer right now. One of the movies I've seen the past few years that really interested me a lot was a movie he made five or six years ago called "Time" about a plastic surgeon. I loved that movie.

Q: How do you think you've changed during the past ten yours of your career?
Colagrande: I think I'm embracing more simplicity. even as a spectator. I respond more and more to noir, and essential, minimal, and intenseness. Intensity is what I look for most and I just realized that the more time goes on, the less powerful a movie is, the less it engages me. So as an author, I try to be simpler and simpler and go straight to what my goal is.

Jessica Kim jesskim@