Willem Dafoe Interview: Beyond: Two Souls
What attracted you to the project?
Willem Dafoe: "I really didn't have to wrap my head around the whole game - I just liked the script. I don't know 'game world', at all! I've done mo-cap before, and there are pleasures and challenges in that which interest me, though it's not something I want to do all the time.
I like the character, too. It seemed like a new experience.
Ellen Page was real glue for me, too. The script's really hung on her as a central character, and I thought she's a very smart choice for it. She operates well on a lot of different levels, plus she's able to deliver a great performance."
Was it similar to the mo-cap experience you had on John Carter?
"Not entirely.
I hadn't done mo-cap before John Carter - just green screen and effects. But John Carter mo-cap was quite a bit different, as the scale and what you're aiming to produce is very different.
I had a great time working on John Carter . It was a great adventure to do, but it was also hard work. In that, we were integrating mo-cap stuff with not mo-cap stuff in the same shot. So there was lots of shooting conventionally next to the mo-cap, and technically it was very complicated.
That was challenging, and sometimes interesting. You're always changing lighting, camera positions etc. In the case of this mo-cap experience, one thing that was really important, and surprisingly liberating, was that we were working in a neutral space. We had a minimum of furniture and props, and we were just in our mo-cap suits.
As there are 65 cameras around the performance space recording you, I didn't even think about the camera.
So it's pure performing as far as your investment in it. You're playing your actions, interacting with the other people - you're pushing the scene, you're receiving the scene.
That's what's going on - there's a part of it that's real stripped down. Just pure performing."
Has this made you more interested in video games?
"My interest right now is specific to this game. I saw 45 minutes of it last night, and it was really cool. I was getting seduced. I had crazy dreams last night! I'll play it, but when it comes to getting more into video games, my life isn't built that way. I travel a lot, so it's hard to find the time - I don't think this'll turn me into a big gamer, but I'll definitely check this out."
Is it weird to see yourself as a CG character?
"Yep. Although it's a parallel experience to seeing a movie when it's finished. It is you but it isn't you.
Sometimes the likeness is spot on, sometimes it's a little strange. But the parallel with a movie is the same - sometimes the shot is beautiful, sometimes the shot is not so good. If you're vain, sometimes you like the way you look. Sometimes you don't like the way you look. It's got that kind of range in my reaction to it."
Beyond: Two Souls has a very cinematic quality. Did you approach it like you would working on a movie?
"Pretty much. You know, I didn't even think about what it meant in relationship to other things I had done, or in relationship to the video game world.
At the beginning, of course, I had a prejudice - I thought 'what the hell is this? They want me to do a video game?' *laughs*.
But I checked it out, and then I slowly got seduced by the material, and then I stopped asking those questions. It became real simple.
And it's something you can't prepare too much for - you don't know what the experience was going to be."
Beyond: Two Souls is available to buy on PS3 from 11 October 2013.