Willem Dafoe used an appearance on Saturday night Live to joke about Joker rumours. During his opening monologue, Dafoe poked fun at his propensity for exuberant performances, laughing at how being told he’d make the perfect Joker is a bit of a back-handed compliment when you stop and think about it.
“Some people tell me that my acting is over the top, but to me, one man’s over-the-top is another man’s engaged performance,” he laughed as some of his more notable characters flashed by. “I don’t think about controlling it. I’m not one of those subtle actors like Nicolas Cage or Al Pacino,” he continued. “Maybe that’s why people come up to me and say, ‘You know what role you’d be perfect for? The Joker. Always nice to hear that you’ve got the vibe of a sociopath.”
As one of the most popular Batman villains who plays The Joker is always a hot topic among fans. For years people have said Dafoe would make a good Joker based just on his smile.
During an interview with GQ, though, Dafoe suggested he’d put more thought into playing Batman’s nemesis than people realise, revealing his pitch for a hypothetical Joker 2.
“There is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker imposter,” Dafoe told GQ. “So it would be possible to have, not duelling Jokers, but someone that says to be the Joker that isn’t the Joker. And that kind of opens up the possibility of an interesting story, particularly if you had Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did.”
If you’re a fan of Dafoe menacing superheroes, be sure to check out our ranking of the best Spider-Man villains, which may or may not feature a certain Green Goblin.