Willem Dafoe made Emma Stone slap him 20 times on ‘And’ set

‘There’s this instinct to perform that many actors have. He’s the opposite of that’

Willem Dafoe reportedly made Emma Stone slap him 20 times on the set of And.

Both actors are set to appear in two new movies, Poor Things and And by The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos.

Poor Things is based on the 1992 novel of the same name. It’s about the story of a woman whose brain is replaced by that of her unborn child.

On the other hand, And centres around the story Belle Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by an eccentric but brilliant scientist.

In a new New York Times profile of Dafoe, it was revealed that he asked Stone to smack him 20 times off camera on the set of And.

“Dafoe insisted that the move would look more genuine if he were actually being slapped, and then took the (staged) blow some 20 times,” wrote Susan Dominus in the piece.

“There’s this instinct to perform that many actors have – the ‘look at me, look at me!’ kind of performer. He’s the opposite of that,” Stone said about Dafoe.

“That’s what you want from actors,” Lanthimos said about Dafoe’s actions.

“To want to be part of it in any way.”

(Getty Images)

Last year, Dafoe shared an “interesting” pitch for a Joker sequel.

“There is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker imposter,” he said.

“So it would be possible to have not duelling Jokers, but someone that [claims] to be the Joker that isn’t the Joker.

“If you had Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did,” Dafoe said, adding: “I fantasised about that.”

Dafoe shared his idea after many fan videos appeared on social media claiming the actor had physical similarities to the original Joker character from the comics.