Willem Dafoe Required a Body Double in ‘Antichrist’ Because of His Distractingly Large Member: ‘He’s Extremely Well-Equipped,’ Says Director Lars von Trier
By now, there aren’t many people who haven’t heard about actor Willem Dafoe. He’s been in some major hits, became one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite actors, and brings a lot of talent and skill to his performances. He also happens to have a big penis that sometimes gets in the way of his performance.
In fact, Willem Dafoe passed on a body double as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but he didn’t have that option when it came to the sex scenes in Antichrist because his penis was too distracting due to its size. Not only has his reputation for having a big penis followed him around in Hollywood, but it has also caused problems with his role in other films.
Dafoe’s penis has become a thing of Hollywood lore since filming ‘Antichrist’
For more than a decade now, Dafoe’s penis has become somewhat of a Hollywood lore. This first came to light following an interview with Antichrist director Lars von Trier.
It has since been a huge topic among conversations in Hollywood, especially since Dafoe is known to take on some pretty risqué roles that require nudity.
In fact, there was a lot of nudity in the film. Dazed Digital addressed this fact and the obvious references to Dafoe’s penis in an interview. Dafoe told the publication that his penis would likely take too much away from the scenes.
“Lars used a porn actor for those scenes,” the At Eternity’s Gate actor revealed. As it turns out, Willem Dafoe used a body double for the crucial scenes.
“It was a good decision because, if it was me, then that’s all that people would talk about. Obviously, Lars wants the characters to have genitals, but it would become a distraction.”
Willem Dafoe needed a body double because the actor’s penis was just ‘too big’
On the other hand, von Trier didn’t shy away from the complete truth of the matter when announcing it in his interview with The Boston Phoenix.
When the interviewer, Peter Keough, mentioned Dafoe’s role as the absolute worst therapist in movie history, the Antichrist director responded,
“I wouldn’t let him treat her in any other way than with his d***; he has an enormous d***. We had to take those scenes out of the film. We had a stand-in for him because we had to take the scenes out with his own d***.”
Shocked, Keough asked, “You had a stand-in d*** for Dafoe?” von Trier answered, “We had to because Will’s was too big.”
The reason was not that it was too big to fit the screen or anything like that. Lars von Trier explained that the reason was just that it was “too big [and] everybody got very confused when they saw it.”
‘Antichrist’ wasn’t the only film where Dafoe’s nudity caused problems
According to Mel Magazine, this is far from the only occasion when a filmmaker worked around the actor’s large member. They also report an interview where the Aquaman star recalled his penis getting in the way of a naked scene of him as Jesus on the set of The Last Temptation of Christ.
“It took a lot to get me on the cross,” Willem Dafoe explained, skipping a body double. “Once I got up there, I could only be up there for so long because you’re in this isometric [twists his body in his chair to show how his legs were twisted on the cross] where you’re like this [spreads his arms wide in the familiar crucified pose]. I’m also naked. They’re shooting a very wide shot, and I’m like this for a while.”
He adds that it’s at this time that his “penis goes out from between [his] legs.”
Martin Scorsese, the film’s director, immediately ordered, “Someone fix that!” The leading man hilariously recalls “there’s only all these Roman stuntmen — real macho guys. And they’re like ‘I’m not touching that thing.’ Finally, a very sweet guy from the costume department gets a little ladder and goes up there and tucks it in, and we were good to go.”
