Random Unexpected Facts About Willem Dafoe Most People Don't Know (18 items)

(#4) He Hates Talking About The Time He Voiced An Animated Polar Bear For A Commercial

Willem Dafoe once voiced a cartoon polar bear. The campaign began in 2011. So it’s strange, then, that Dafoe bristled at the mere mention of his voiceover as Clarence the Polar Bear in ads for Birds Eye.

“This is the last thing I want to talk about," he icily told an Independent reporter.
(#12) He’s Not A Tough Guy

When HuffPost asked him, “If you and Nic Cage ever actually got together and wanted to do a heist, what would you go for?” Dafoe responded, “[Laugh] I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Deep down we’re two big sissies.”

Despite his intimidating outward appearance, apparently Dafoe regards himself as a bit of a wimp.
(#3) According To Him, He Was Raised By Five Horny Sisters

If you believe Dafoe’s account, his five sisters taught him about sex at the age of 6. He recalled:

It was a sexual education, because my sisters were the horniest little girls. They would tell me stuff that, when I was small, I didn't want to hear. I remember one of my sisters talking about fellatio and cunnilingus when I was 6 years old. I said, "Only dirty people do that, right?" She just laughed. When I told my friends what I knew about the birds and bees, they beat me up because they found it so disgusting.
(#17) He Doesn’t Follow Dreams

From his experimental theater days to his screen career, Dafoe has gone with the flow. He explained:

I’m not asleep. And I’ve always been ambitious and terrifically disciplined, so don’t get the idea that I’m just a guy hanging out and stuff is happening to me. I try to make things happen. But at the same time I trust serendipity. You can’t force things. When stuff comes together you support it and make it happen - I don’t have a plan, and I think that’s partly because I’ve never had a formal approach or a formal dream. In fact, I distrust dreams. All this stuff about following your dream and realizing your dream... it doesn’t sound good to me.
(#5) He Skinned A Wallaby To Play His Role In 'The Hunter'

Dafoe learned bushcraft from a Tasmanian tracker for his role in The Hunter.

"When it came to skinning the wallaby," he told Steve Rose at The Guardian, "I only had one chance at it, because they only had one animal. They said, 'Listen, it's been dead for a while. The gastric juices have been building up and it's quite bloated. If you do this incorrectly, it's gonna explode in your face.' Luckily, there's lots of surgeons in my family. I think it's in my genes."
(#13) He Broke Up With His Partner Of 27 Years

Dafoe and LeCompte have a son, Jack, born in 1982. When their relationship ended after 27 years, so did Dafoe’s relationship with their theater company, the Wooster Group. He just didn’t know it up front.

“When we separated,” he explained to The New York Times, “I understood that on the next project, maybe she needed some time to feel a little better about me. I haven’t heard from them.” When The Times asked for a response from LeCompte, she replied through an email message, “I respect Willem Dafoe as an artist, and I respect anything he has to say about the Group and the Group’s work.”