‘The Northman’: Willem Dafoe Shares Excitement Towards Reuniting With Robert Eggers
The Northman is the highly-anticipated third film by director Robert Eggers. Eggers gained a following in the horror realm with both The Witch and The Lighthouse, which were both praised for their ambiguous stories and haunting atmospheres. Willem Dafoe had a main role in The Lighthouse and is excited to reteam with Eggers in a supporting role in The Northman.
Willem Dafoe says he ‘wanted to work’ with Roberts Eggers again after ‘The Lighthouse’
2019’s The Lighthouse starred Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two sailors who become lighthouse caretakers. After a storm leaves them marooned on an island, the two begin to question their own sanity while also feeling a mysterious presence from the island itself.
The film received rave reviews from critics and audiences. Many praised both performances from Pattinson and Dafoe, with many enjoying Dafoe’s old sailor accent and dialogue. In an interview with Total Film for Gamesradar+, Dafoe says The Lighthouse was “such a good experience” and that is part of why he’s excited to work with Eggers once more.
“Of course I wanted to work with him again,” Dafoe says. “The Lighthouse was such a good experience, and also I admired, very much, The Witch. That’s what really led me to reach out to him, to have a meeting. And then we hit it off. I think he’s a supremely talented guy. He’s got an original voice. He’s a crazy believer. He’s a crazy researcher. And he understands performance, and he understands cinema. So what else do you want?”
Dafoe teases that ‘The Northman’ will be a ‘huge movie’
Eggers’ third film, The Northman, is set in the tenth century and is the story of Viking prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard), who sets out on a quest for revenge on the man who murdered his father. The cast of The Northman also includes Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Claes Bang, Bjork, and Dafoe.
The first trailer promises an epic Viking adventure with plenty of action and massive sets. In an interview with Indiewire, Dafoe explains that his role is much smaller than The Lighthouse, but the scale of The Northman is “much bigger.”
“It’s a huge movie,” Dafoe explains. “It’s a muscular movie. My involvement isn’t nearly as expansive as ‘The Lighthouse.’ I’m in a supporting role, but it was thrilling. The level of research and detail is there, but on a much bigger scale. During the pandemic, they continued to work and to research things to build, and somehow they did. We gave them the time to prepare for this huge jump in budget and size of production. The sets are fantastic.”
Despite a larger budget, Dafoe still promises Eggers gives The Northman the same level of detail
The Northman is Eggers’ first film outside of A24 and is going to be distributed by Focus Features. According to The Cord, the budget of Eggers Viking film is “$110 million,” which is “nearly 10 times the budget of The Lighthouse and 27 times the budget he had for The Witch.” However, Dafoe promises that Eggers is still treating The Northman the same as his smaller projects.
“You have the same kind of detail he gave to his smaller films,” Dafoe told Indiewire. “Sometimes when you have a jump in budget, directors can have a hard time and they end up delegating and lose control. I didn’t feel that. I felt like he was still driving it.”
The Northman arrives in theaters on April 22, 2022.
