Willem Dafoe Had Emma Stone Slap Him 20 Times While Filming ‘And’ So Off-Camera Scene Would Look More Genuine
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Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe had quite a memorable moment while working on Yorgos Lanthimos’ upcoming film And.
In a profile by The New York Times, published online Thursday, it was revealed that Dafoe was “self-motivating to set,” which meant he would come to set even when he didn’t have to be there. While filming one scene, Stone even slapped the Spider-Man actor around 20 times so that the scene would look more genuine, although he’s meant to be off-camera. Typically, an actor would just motion without their co-star there.
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“That’s what you want from actors,” the director told the Times. “To want to be part of it in any way.”
The La La Land star explained that Dafoe is the “opposite” of other actors she’s worked with in regard to having “this instinct to perform that many actors have — the ‘look at me, look at me!’ kind of performer.”
“Maybe it’s changed through the years,” she said. “A lot of actors I bond with have been doing this for a long time, and you know they’ve gone from ‘I’ to ‘We.’”
The Florida Project actor went on to detail how his relationship with acting changed as he grew in his career. “Once you start working, you use that as a means to survive,” Dafoe said. “And then…it becomes like a spiritual thing — to find your connection with all things.”
A release date has not been set for And, and the film’s plot has been kept under wraps. Dafoe and Stone are also starring in Lanthimos’ upcoming Victorian-set film Poor Things, based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, which follows Belle Baxter, a young woman who is brought back to life by an eccentric scientist.
