Willem Dafoe Believes Lars Von Trier’s ‘Antichrist’ Is Misunderstood: “It’s Not About Misogyny At All”

Lars von Trier is one of the most polarizing filmmakers in the world. He doesn’t pull punches and typically has strong opinions that show through in his work. And one of his more debated films is “Antichrist,” which stars Willem Dafoe. Now, the actor is defending the film and saying it’s been largely misunderstood over the years.

In a recent interview on “The Louis Theroux Podcast,” Willem Dafoe was asked about his work with filmmaker Lars von Trier. The actor talked about “Antichrist” and explained that the “extremeness” of the storytelling has contributed to people misunderstanding the feature.

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For those unaware, “Antichrist” is a deeply disturbing film about a married couple dealing with the recent loss of their child. They go to a cabin in the woods to get away from everything, but while there, they both begin to descend into madness. As with many of von Trier’s films, the film doesn’t necessarily paint women in the best light. 

“I think it gets misidentified because of some of its extremeness,” Dafoe said, “but I think it really speaks to interesting things about women’s power, men’s fear of women, the struggle between the logical and the magical in life. There’s lots of sexual politics in it, and it’s not about misogyny at all.”

He added, “I think [von Trier] identifies with the women more than the man. I can tell you that because I play the straight, logical one in the movie. But I think he’s genuinely curious and he’s a great filmmaker. So, you know, the opening of that movie and the epilogue of that movie is great cinema.”

A big problem, according to Dafoe, is the fact that film discussions lately aren’t what they used to be. He mentioned how people creating content often ignore the nuance in a situation when offering their critique. And this, as you might imagine, is bad for cinema, especially when it comes to filmmakers such as von Trier.

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“Listen, there’s this problem where we reduce these things that are very complex to kind of the warts, you know? And then that’s what goes out,” Dafoe said. “It’s particularly a problem as real film criticism disappears and gives way to short form and TikTok and influencers and all that. There’s not the dialogue that some films of sophistication deserve. And you can say, ‘Ah, shut up, be an actor, make a movie,’ but I think it’s a problem because it’s starved cinema a little bit, that the high-minded cinema actually makes way for the popular cinema.”

You can hear Dafoe’s full interview below: