“When ‘Spider-Man’ was proposed to me originally it was like, ‘Really, you’re going to make a movie from a comic book?’” Willem Dafoe, Oscar frontrunner for “The Florida Project” this season, recalled.
Dafoe, a solid character actor previously nominated for serious drama like “Platoon,” who played the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man,” will appear in the upcoming “Aquaman.”
“It was like I was slumming it, you know? I didn’t see it that way, but some people were like, ‘Really?’”
Comic Strip Movies: International Appeal
Dafoe believes that part of the success of the superhero film is its international appeal, saying that their “muscular” stories often have cross-cultural appeal and the set pieces are visually engaging enough to continue to draw in audiences around the globe.
Star Hugh Jackman (who toplines “The Greatest Showman”) thinks that superhero films have generally surpassed audience’s expectations. “Ten years ago I remember hearing people say, ‘I don’t think this will last much longer,’ and it’s just continued to grow. I don’t think anyone saw that coming.”
Jackman thinks that ‘X-Men’ did a lot, particularly when it opened up in a concentration camp and the idea that we were taking it seriously in terms of more humanistic rather than superhuman.”
Both actors still love roles in action films and the simplicity of applying themselves to the cause and effect nature of the films.
“I see the performance as dance,” Jackman said.
