After 45 years in the acting game, Willem Dafoe says he's looking for something of an otherworldly experience when taking on new roles. In The Man in My Basement, he plays a seemingly harmless man who slowly edges into one who is capable of psychological torture.
"I'm looking to have an adventure. I'm looking to be disturbed. I'm looking to tap into a sense of wonder," Dafoes tells GamesRadar+. "Something that takes me away from my conditioned thinking or learning something. You know, you learn something and then you become a new person. You know, life is reenergized."
The actor plays Anniston Bennet, a mysterious businessman who contacts a lonely, struggling Sag Harbor resident named Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins) with the intent of renting out his basement. Charles isn't too keen on the idea of a strange white man living in his basement...but he really needs the money. After he accepts the offer, Anniston moves in, and things take a turn for the strange and sinister. Based on the novel of the same name, Nadia Latif directs from a screenplay she co-wrote with author Walter Mosley.
"I was very aware of Walter Mosley. I had not read the book. I did not know that particular book. I knew his writing. So my ears perked up when I heard his name," Dafoe continues. "And then I just got to know Nadia, and I liked how she talked about the project, what her connection with the project was. And then she gave me lots of things to look at – films and pictures and music and books that would kind of put me in the head of some of the things that the film addresses itself to, as far as thematically some of the dynamics of what we're talking about in the film."
Beyond being a horror thriller, the film deals with themes of trauma, mental illness, family history, race, colonialism, and white guilt. Charles and Anniston develop a push-pull power dynamic that creates a creeping tension, like a dam waiting to burst.
"It required a certain amount of research just because [Anniston's] life is so different than mine," Dafoe continues. "So I had to have some kind of understanding of where that life could have come from."
The Man in My Basement had its world premiere on September 5, and is set to hit theaters on September 12. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025 and beyond.
