Six Directors Who Brought Out the Best in Willem Dafoe

In “Poor Things,” Willem Dafoe plays God, bringing his devilish grin to the role of an ethically unbound surgeon who grafts body parts from one creature onto another, blending ducks and geese with dogs and goats — and, in the case of Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter, implanting a spare brain in the corpse of a drowned woman.

The Dr. Frankenstein-like character is just the latest leap of faith for an actor who spoke to Variety, apropos of receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. With more than 100 screen credits to his name, Dafoe — who hails from conservative, small-town Wisconsin — finds himself drawn to roles that would intimidate his peers, from “The Last Temptation of Christ” to “Antichrist.”

“I may live in Italy now, but I’m still that unsophisticated kid from Wisconsin,” he insists, distancing himself from his transgressive characters: “My father probably never had alcohol touch his lips. My parents didn’t drink coffee.” Dafoe’s parents were Eisenhower Republicans who instilled their work ethic in Willem, who’s been acting nonstop for nearly 60 years.

“I’m always driven by directors,” Dafoe explains, crediting a handful of bold filmmakers for his most memorable roles. “I’m not an interpreter. I don’t have an idea about what I want to convey to you,” he insists. “I like to have an experience and then apply that experience to a fiction that hopefully is transparent enough…