Willem Dafoe Wishes “Challenging” Films Would Fare Better On Streaming: “The Kind Of Attention That People Give At Home Is Not The Same”

Throughout his career, Willem Dafoe hasn’t shied away from challenging roles. And he wishes streaming audiences would challenge themselves in similar ways instead of watching lowest-common-denominator content. EW reports (via The Guardian) that the actor reflected on where movies are right now and lamented how streaming and corporate financing affects discourse on film and their subject matter. In short, Dafoe thinks “aren’t making movies the same way they used to,” and he wants cinema to stay lively, “ballsy,” and creatively difficult.

READ MORE: Willem Dafoe On The “Quite Amazing” Yorgos Lanthimos & How Bella Symbolizes Hope In ‘Poor Things’ [Interview]

Is this the nostalgia of a legendary actor for days of yore? Or is Dafoe, as he put it, a “lousy source” to “have a really good overview on what has changed” in the movie business? Either way, the actor makes a compelling argument, stating that “more difficult movies, more challenging movies” don’t do as well on streaming services than in theaters. And the reason for that is that “the kind of attention that people give at home isn’t the same.”  

“I miss the social thing of where movies fit in the world,” Dafoe told the outlet. “You go see a movie, you go out to dinner, you talk about it later, and that spreads out. People now go home, they say, ‘Hey, honey, let’s watch something stupid tonight,’ and they flip through and they watch five minutes of 10 movies, and they say, forget it, let’s go to bed. Where’s that discourse found?” It’s true that the advent of streaming has diminished the event-type quality of new releases or even just going to the movie theater. But Dafoe doesn’t think cinema’s problems end there.

The actor also lamented that studios “aren’t making movies the same way they used to. They’re being financed by toy companies and other entities, and they become the vehicle to make the movies, because they know how to do that. Streaming, they’re becoming like a monopoly, they have the means of production and distribution. And so it’s very complicated.” Is that a potshot at “Barbie“? Possibly, but let’s not forget that “Barbie,” despite its huge box office success last year, was a difficult and challenging movie in its own right. But Greta Gerwig‘s film isn’t really Dafoe’s target here.

Dafoe continued, “I just noticed that there’s been a proliferation of middlemen. There aren’t ballsy producers like there used to be. There are some savvy ones, but you don’t have the same kind of characters that you used to have, that would sell their house to make a movie, and do crazy things to get it done. They’re a little harder to find.” And the actor is right about that. Hollywood and the movie business in general is much safer than it used to be regarding production and creative risk-taking. And even studios pushing the aesthetic envelope like A24 don’t share the same cavalier attitudes of former Hollywood enfante terribles.  

Dafoe’s right: Hollywood isn’t the same business anymore. But that doesn’t mean difficult and challenging films aren’t being made anymore. After all, Dafoe stars in plenty of them, including Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Poor Things.” That film looks like the second in a row for the Greek auteur to do well in an awards season. And Dafoe upcoming projects like “Beetlejuice 2” and “Nosferatu” also smack of the challenges Dafoe likes movies to have (although Tim Burton‘s film undoubtedly has a mainstream appeal than Robert Eggers‘ remake).  

But Dafoe’s commentary speaks more to a broader issue affecting society right now: a lack of sustained attention and critical scrutiny with anything, plus the production of content that appeals to distracted, superficial engagement in the first place. And movies aren’t the only artistic or social context negatively affected by that plight. Is there an easy solution here? Perhaps not, but what Dafoe wishes for isn’t a mere nostalgia trip for a bygone era. He wants to keep movies, art, and life thorny, vigorous, and infinitely demanding. If anything, that’s a statement of love and devotion to the medium he’s devoted an entire career to.