Willem Dafoe Goes Off-Broadway, Against The Celeb Grain Again

by BILLY GRAY · November 6, 2009

    Hollywood superstars often hope to bolster their credibility with dramatic thee-ate-er turns on Broadway. This fall, the Great White Way has glowed exceptionally bright with the megawatt smiles of Jude Law ("Hamlet"), Sienna Miller, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig ("A Steady Rain"). In typically offbeat fashion, Willem Dafoe has entered the fray with a role in "Idiot Savant", a bolder, if less accessible, production playing off-Broadway at the venerable Public Theater.

    Dafoe is always happy to go to extremes for his art. He already sacrificed his testicles in Lars Von Trier's Antichrist, currently playing at the IFC Center. So it comes as no surprise that the downtown resident is foresaking the glitz and bustle of the theater district for a part in experimental theater veteran Richard Foreman's latest production. If seeing Dafoe bare it all in Von Trier's provocation wasn't enough, now you can actually see him in the flesh, minus the pesky castration.