Willem Dafoe on Playing a Poet in ‘Late Fame’ and Working With Robert Eggers and Yorgos Lanthimos: ‘If I Give Myself to a Director, I Want It to Burn Hot’

By Daniel D'Addario

Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

Latest

• Willem Dafoe on Playing a Poet in ‘Late Fame’ and Working With Robert Eggers and Yorgos Lanthimos: ‘If I Give Myself to a Director, I Want It to Burn Hot’ 30 minutes ago
• Tyriq Withers Takes Off: The ‘Reminders of Him’ Breakout on Swapping Football for Acting and Overcoming the Loss of His Brother 1 day ago
• ‘Cape Fear’ Creator Nick Antosca on That Shocking Final Sequence and Making Big Changes From Scorsese’s Version 5 days ago

Willem Dafoe is in the midst of a massive year — and he’s playing a character whose life is small by design.

In director Kent Jones’ “Late Fame” (out Aug. 7 in New York and Aug. 19 in Los Angeles and other cities), Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, a postal employee who, in his youth, had been a published poet and edged up to real success. Whether by choice or circumstance, Ed has faded into utter obscurity, and seems to like it that way — until Meyers (Edmund Donovan), the leader of a group of self-styled intellectuals that also includes a glamorous but fading actress (Greta Lee), introduces himself to the man he calls an artistic forebear. Suddenly, Ed is at the center of a social whirl that destabilizes him, and makes him wonder if fame isn’t actually so bad.

Related Stories

Disney's Next Big Thing: Malachi Barton on 'Camp Rock 3,' Doomscrolling on TikTok and Not Hiding His Faith in God