Willem Dafoe Interview - John Carter
Willem Dafoe has tackled his fair share of interesting characters over his 30 year film career, but never before has he had to play a four-armed Martian. In Disney' John Carter, directed by Andrew Stanton (WALL-E), Dafoe plays Tars Tarkas - a character Dafoe admits he knew little about before reading the John Carter script. Dafoe wasn't familiar with the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, however that didn't stop him from reuniting with his Finding Nemo director on the sci-fi adventure film.
At Disney's D23 Expo, Dafoe joined his John Carter co-stars Taylor Kitsch ('John Carter') and Lynn Collins ('Dejah Thoris') to preview clips from the film in front of an appreciative and enthusiastic crowd of Disney fans. Among the scenes shown to the crowd of 4,000+ were two clips featuring Tars Tarkas and John Carter. One clip showed Tars Tarkas throwing a spear at John Carter, with the newcomer to the planet Mars leaping into the air to avoid being hit. After convincing other 'Tharks' to stop attacking, Tars tries to convince John not to be afraid, however the short scene showed John was justified in being fearful for his life (although the threat didn't come from Tars). The second clip featuring those two characters showed John and Tars inside a gladiator arena being attacked by a gigantic white ape.
Dafoe had to wear three-foot tall stilts in order to play Tars, as well as deal with cameras attached to his head that were recording his facial expressions. And in our exclusive interview at D23 Expo, Dafoe talked about working on John Carter, playing Tars Tarkas, the set, walking on stilts, playing a character with four arms, and being unfamiliar with the source material before starting work on the project:
John Carter stars Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, James Purefoy, and Mark Strong, is set to hit theaters on March 9, 2012.
Additional John Carter Interviews: Lynn Collins / Andrew Stanton and Taylor Kitsch
