Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project, which has earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor. Photo / AP
Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project, which has earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor. Photo / AP
"You know, I once jokingly said I hear the words 'family drama' and I run," laughs Willem Dafoe. "I don't usually do movies with a lot of children in them but I enjoyed working with these kids."
We're talking about his new film The Florida Project, a low-budget drama that's been heaped with critical acclaim, earned Dafoe a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor and is being talked about as a serious Oscar contender.
Dafoe plays Bobby, the manager of a residents motel in Florida called The Magic Castle. The film is an affecting and realistic look at a life not many of us know much about.
"I knew [director] Sean Baker's work and that was really the introduction. When he wanted to talk to me I read the script and it was very strong. It described a world that I didn't know, so my first question to Sean was, 'Does this world really exist?' and he said, 'Absolutely. We're gonna be shooting right there. We're gonna shoot at a working motel."
Dafoe explains that these motels were built very fast to accommodate demand from tourists coming to the newly built theme parks in the area, most famously Disney World. They were modestly priced and designed as not much more than crash pads.
"You sleep there and go off to the parks and enjoy yourself during the day," he explains. "But as the amusement parks changed, over time they become more sophisticated and the public demanded more sophisticated lodging, so these budget motels fell out of favour."
In order to keep occupancy up, prices dropped.
"The owners would lower the prices very much and make rooms available to people who didn't have permanent homes. They were kind of, for lack of a better word, almost like shelters. Because these people live very hand-to-mouth. They can deal with $35 a night but they can't do with a $1000 security deposit or two months' rent in advance. These people are temporary long-term residents but they're living in a one-room place that's taken up by a bed and a tiny little bathroom. If you imagine a single mother with five kids in that place it really becomes a tough place to grow up."
The film shows the tough reality of that life but, unusually, it does so from a place of childlike innocence as it follows a precocious 6-year-old girl named Moonee and her young solo mum Halley. Moonee spends her days playing with the other kids and exploring the area while Halley hustles to get her $35 a night. These roles are played with utter believability by Brooklyn Prince and Bria Vinaite, two total newcomers to film. In fact Dafoe is the only professional actor in the film.
"I was excited by that dynamic," Dafoe says. "Because to make a film with this kind of subject matter it's the only way you can do it. I was excited by the challenge of being able to pass as a non-actor and pass as being in this world without sticking out."
Willem Dafoe and Brooklynn Prince in The Florida Project. Photo / supplied
It works as Dafoe's Bobby passes as both, a paternal figure to the residents but also an authority figure tasked with collecting their weekly rent.
"He's one of them really. He's about a paycheck away from them," Dafoe says. "He understands these people, but he also understands that his job is to run the place. When I interviewed people that have this kind of job, as part of the research, the one thing that struck me was they all took a great pride in their work. They were real believers. This was their little fiefdom, their little community, and they really believed they could make it a better place."
Did filming in a real working motel and spending time talking to the people that live and work there affect him?
"This wonderful thing that can happen, sometimes, in a movie when you approach a subject or a world you're not familiar with, you start to learn things about the world and all of a sudden those people that used to be 'them' becomes 'us'. You start to relate to them, you start to emphasise. And that shift in understanding isn't like some soft and cuddly feeling, it's practical," he answers. "It's a feeling that lifts you up because it makes you realise that we do have power. We do have power to affect change and we do have power to help each other. So I think – without getting to soft about this – I think that's what's expressed in the movie."
The movie is honest, moving and packs a real emotional wallop, but it's not without its humour. One of the best moments is when some unwanted guests stroll on to the motel's parking lot.
Dafoe laughs and says, "There was a very strong script but we were always inventing things and reacting off what was happening. Those damn birds kept on coming on to the parking lot and because they're protected animals, we can't go near them. There were restrictions on what we could do. Sean saw those birds coming and he naturally said, 'Willem get over there and do something with those birds!'"
LOWDOWN Who: Willem Dafoe What: The Florida Project When: In cinemas today
