While Willem Dafoe can play serious better than almost any other actor, his filmography is also packed with some hilarious performances. Although Dafoe has made a name for himself for his menacing portrayals of sinister villains, unnerving characterizations of oddball outsiders, and darkly deranged depictions of otherworldly enтιтies, he’s also had plenty of more comedic roles throughout his acclaimed career. Through collaborations with all-time great directors like Robert Eggers and Wes Anderson, Dafoe has never shied away from showing off his funny side.

Many of the best Willem Dafoe movies had an element of humor about them, as he often leaned into his serious reputation to be an excellent straight man opposite an outrageous comedy character. Dafoe’s talent for over-the-top theatricality and his innately expressive acting style meant that sometimes he was unintentionally funny and had roles that, although not true comedy parts, were impossible not to laugh at. As one of the greatest actors of modern times, Dafoe’s often underappreciated talent for comedy showcases his incredible range.

10

Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

Willem Dafoe as John Geiger

While Speed 2: Cruise Control is notorious for being one of the worst movie sequels of all time, I believe that if you recontextualize this action thriller as an accidental comedy, it becomes immensely more enjoyable. One of the main reasons Speed 2 worked so well as a comedy was Willem Dafoe’s over-the-top performance as the villainous John Geiger. As a disgruntled former employee of a cruise company, Geiger hijacked a ship and sought revenge through acts of terror.

In a deranged and maniacal performance, Dafoe leaned so far into camp that his menace ended up being more ridiculous than it was threatening. With a petty motivation, a goofy evil plan, and a cartoonish intensity, Geiger felt closer to a James Bond villain than anything that could actually be imagined in the real world. With cheesy one-liners and a playful sense of fun, Dafoe’s performance single-handedly saved Speed 2: Cruise Control from completely sinking.

9

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Willem Dafoe as Wolf Jackson

One of the best things about Willem Dafoe is that he fits equally in ᴅᴇᴀᴅly serious horror stories and the tongue-in-cheek Gothic fantasy of the world in the works of Tim Burton. This made him the ideal addition to the cast of the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which leaned into nostalgia for the original film without losing the spark that made it such a classic. While of course Michael Keaton’s seamless ability to lose himself in the role of Betelgeuse was the movie’s highlight, Dafoe’s support role added to its appeal.

Dafoe played Wolf Jackson in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, an afterlife detective who was a B-movie action star in life before being killed by a live grenade. After discovering that Betelgeuse brought a living person into the Netherworld, Wolf embarked on a manhunt for him in a goofy chase influenced by classic film noirs. As a genre-bending mix of bizarre and surreal characterizations, Dafoe’s faux seriousness in the midst of an outrageously silly situation made for laugh-out-loud viewing.

8

The Grand Budapest H๏τel (2014)

Willem Dafoe as J. G. Jopling

Willem Dafoe proved he was the perfect villain for Wes Anderson’s signature brand of whimsy in The Grand Budapest H๏τel. As an ᴀssᴀssin working for Dmitri Desgoffe-und-Taxis (Adrien Brody), Dafoe portrayed Jopling with all the intensity of a classic silent movie henchman, and his exaggerated presence, paired with his leather trench coat, meant he stuck out like a sore thumb. In typical Dafoe fashion, it was the over-the-top nature of his menacing presence that meant he was unintentionally hilarious in every scene he was in.

While the ensemble cast of The Grand Budapest H๏τel featured one of the most impressive rosters in modern cinema, Dafoe managed to stand out as a particularly memorable villain. Although Jopling had very little dialogue, his intense stares and silent rage showed off Dafoe’s talent for physical comedy. As a character who harkens back to the comedy of times past and the nostalgic eras that influenced Anderson’s film, Dafoe’s performance as Jopling highlighted his skill as a classic character actor capable of imbuing his roles with a unique energy.

7

Finding Nemo (2003)

Willem Dafoe as Gill

While Willem Dafoe won’t be the first actor you think of when people mention children’s animated entertainment, he did subvert audience expectations with his role in Pixar’s Finding Nemo. As a Moorish Idol ray-finned fish, Gill’s life in a dentist’s fish tank forced him to develop a tough exterior. While there was a sense of seriousness at the heart of his character, the way Dafoe played this imprisoned fish with the same level of intensity of a POW in a gritty war movie made for hilarious viewing.

Gill was an inspiring character whose speeches to Nemo and the rest of the Tank Gang provided them hope as he hung onto the dream to one day escape from his glᴀss cage. The characterization of Gill leaned into Dafoe’s reputation for playing deathly serious characters and was a funny nod to his cinematic legacy that could be enjoyed by adult viewers and would likely go right over the kid audience members’ heads. It’s this willingness to tackle roles that you wouldn’t expect from him that made Dafoe such a consistently surprising and funny actor.

6

The Lighthouse (2019)

Willem Dafoe as Thomas Wake

While Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse was a deeply atmospheric and psychological horror movie, it was also very funny at times. With Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as nineteenth-century lighthouse keepers stuck at their remote New England post due to an intense storm, the claustrophobic and inescapable nature of their plight captured the sheer hilarity of two people who simply cannot get away from one another. Through dramatic monologues and poeticism that bordered on the insane, Thomas Wake was one of Dafoe’s most darkly funny characters.

Through drunken rambling, gaslighting, and psychological torment, Wake became a symbol of existential terror for his fellow lighthouse keeper, Ephraim Winslow. While Dafoe delivered his dialogue with utmost seriousness, this intense commitment to the role was what made it so unintentionally funny. Of all the madmen that Dafoe has played over the years, Thomas Wake represented the absolute pinnacle of his insanity and allowed the actor to let loose in a manner that he seldom, if ever, got to before.

5

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

Willem Dafoe as Carson Clay

Often, the funniest aspect of Willem Dafoe’s performances was how his faux seriousness was often completely juxtaposed with the rest of the movie, a factor that was never more true than in Mr. Bean’s Holiday. As the ultimate encapsulation of physical comedy and lowbrow humor, Rowan Atkinson’s all-time great character of Mr. Bean came face-to-face with Dafoe’s hilarious performance as the pretentious, self-absorbed filmmaker Carson Clay.

The reason that Clay was so funny was because Dafoe played the part absolutely straight, as his fictional movie Playback Time poked fun at the deeply artistic and melodramatic movies he’s been part of in the past. The seriousness of Clay made Mr. Bean’s antics all the more hilarious, as he consistently ruined the filmmaker’s projects. With a ᴅᴇᴀᴅpan performance, it’s impressive that Dafoe was able to keep a straight face amid the outrageous goofiness of Mr. Bean.

4

American Psycho (2000)

Willem Dafoe as Donald Kimball

While Christian Bale’s performance as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho was a masterclass in unnerving acting, it’s important to give kudos to Willem Dafoe’s memorable turn as the private investigator Donald Kimball. As a figure who may or may not suspect Bateman for the murder of Paul Allen, Dafoe’s performance as Kimball had a cryptic energy that was subtly hilarious. With an offbeat acting style, part of the power of Kimball’s role was that you never quite knew what he was thinking.

This disorienting performance added to the satirical nature of American Psycho and was due to director Mary Harron filming Dafoe’s scenes in three different ways. Dafoe was filmed as if he didn’t suspect Bateman at all, again where he was suspicious, and finally where he knew Bateman killed Allen, and all three versions were spliced together in the final edit. This clever editing trick was why Dafoe’s performance was so strange, and the way his character shifted from one moment to the next made him unintentionally hilarious.

3

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Willem Dafoe as Klaus Daimler

As the first of many collaborations between Willem Dafoe and director Wes Anderson, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou dove straight into the deep end when it came to the filmmakers’ uniquely quirky sense of humor. As the German crew mat Klaus Daimler, Dafoe’s performance traded his unusual eerie energy for an endearingly awkward and hilariously insecure character who desperately sought the approval of Bill Murray’s Steve Zissou. As a nautical adventure film that paid homage to the French diving pioneer Jacques Cousteau, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was packed with fascinating and funny characters like Klaus.

While Klaus was a fully grown adult, Dafoe portrayed him as almost childlike in the jealous way he reacted to Steve’s newly discovered son Ned (Owen Wilson.) Through ᴅᴇᴀᴅpan delivery and a thick, overpronounced German accent, pretty much everything about Klaus’s presentation was funny, and he was a major part of the movie’s cult appeal. While Klaus’s sulking led to some of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’s funniest moments, there was also a relatable humanity at the heart of his character that made him incredibly endearing.

2

Nosferatu (2024)

Willem Dafoe as Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz

With an over-the-top sense of theatricality, it was clear that Dafoe was having the time of his life with this role as he delivered some of Nosferatu’s funniest lines of dialogue that were masked in the Gothic seriousness of this dark tale. As the most recent of three movies Dafoe has made with Eggers, Nosferatu was yet another astounding showcase that this pairing was a match made in heaven. While both artists initially appear to have an air of seriousness about them, buried just underneath the surface, there is a unique talent for comedy.

1

Spider-Man (2002)

Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin

Many younger people’s first introduction to Willem Dafoe was as Norman Osborn in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man back in 2002. This incredible performance acted as the inspiration for countless memes as classic lines like “I’m something of a scientist myself” highlighted the humor at the heart of this iconic superhero movie. Dafoe’s role as Osborn represented the best of what a movie supervillain could be, as his dark transformation into the Green Goblin played into the actor’s unmatched talent for outrageous theatricality, unhinged characterizations, and deranged dialogue.

Dafoe was perfectly cast in his role in Spider-Man and was an essential part of the film’s success, which helped kickstart the age of superhero movies that we’re still living through today. While Dafoe’s characterization of Norman had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, it was when in costume as the Green Goblin that he could truly let loose with some of his most frantic and berserk dialogue. The popularity of Willem Dafoe’s performance has endured, and he even reprised his role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, as the multiverse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe opened the door for his return.