The dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are on everyone’s minds in and around Hollywood, but for Willem Dafoe, their impact on this particular weekend is unique. This was supposed to be a landmark moment for the veteran actor in his esteemed career. The four-time Oscar nominee had three movies set to premiere at Venice alone, from the Oscar-bound juggernaut Poor Things to the Italian epic Finally Dawn and the queer debut Pet Shop Days—as well as a hell of a starring vehicle in Patricia Arquette’s directorial debut, Gonzo Girl, which was slated to bow the next week in Toronto. For various reasons, that trio of Lido premieres did not secure SAG interim agreements, meaning Dafoe couldn’t go to the festival at all as a proud member of his union. “It broke my heart,” he says.

Gonzo Girl, however, is officially under an agreement—which thrills Dafoe, as he sits for tea in Toronto, where he’s giddily promoting the film alongside Arquette following its Thursday-night launch. Some actors, like Seven Veils’ Amanda Seyfried, elected not to go to Canada for films even if they were under interim agreements, a choice Dafoe tells me he does not fully understand, given that the guild has encouraged its members to publicly stand with such projects: “We’re here with the blessings of SAG,” he says. “I don’t know why someone wouldn’t come.”

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Dafoe, who lives in Italy, brings an infectious actorly enthusiasm to a festival in very short supply of such energy. Gonzo Girl marks another huge swing for the actor, in which he plays Walker Reade, a fictionalization of Hunter S. Thompson, originated in the novel of the same name by Cheryl Della Pietra, who briefly served as the iconic writer’s assistant in his later years. The film examines the toxic dynamic between the pair as Reade struggles to finish his book through wild drug trips and various chaotic relationships. Dafoe’s performance is all his own, but it brilliantly evokes Thompson all the same—a tour de force that Arquette captures in agonizingly tight close-ups, showcasing her star in his prime.

For Dafoe, the man who’s played Jesus Christ and T.S. Eliot and Vincent Van Gogh over decades onscreen, this marks another chance to take a risk, to go big and not turn back. Over our morning tea, he expresses great joy in being able to talk about it—and great concern in not being able to do anything else right now.

Vanity Fair: I was really struck with your performance and the way Patricia filmed it. Did you notice the extreme closeups during shooting?

Willem Dafoe: No! In fact, when I saw this cut last night, I thought, “Where the hell did you get all those fat juicy closeups?” Because I don’t recall that. The shooting style was pretty loose, but there was a cut where there were much less [close-ups]. You don’t like to lean on closeups too much, but I think particularly when that character has to drive the scene then it helps a lot.

It’s a showcase for a pretty major role and performance. How was it presented to you?

I was interested, but I was a little concerned about doing an imitation of Hunter S. Thompson. I think, “Johnny [Depp] did that. Bill Murray did it.” Then out of the blue, I was unaware of the next development. Patricia came on board. I thought, “Well, this is interesting,” because her career is quite interesting and she’s tough. Tough yet feminine. I like her so much. I knew her background growing up: She knows this stuff and she’s keyed into celebrity culture.

I said, “Listen, I’m happy to do it. But we’re going to do Walker Reade, we’re not going to do Hunter Thompson. We’re going to lean on a lot of stuff and it’s going to be very transparent and everybody’s going to be thinking of Hunter Thompson, but our job is not to say, “This guy’s going to be Hunter Thompson.” Copying or imitation is a great place to start, but it’s not a very good place to end up. It just becomes like a show. Some movies, when they do a biopic, people brag about, “Oh, he sounds like him. He looks like him. He moves like him.” There’s a kind of beauty and enjoyment to that, but that’s not what this was about. There were better things to explore.And it’s a low budget movie, so I can’t go off for a year listening to his voice tapes. It’s not only a pragmatic thing, but it’s just freer not to have that kind of burden. This is inspired by a book that was inspired by a truth.

Is it something that you’ve learned over time, to not focus on imitation? You’ve played a few big names, including Van Gogh just a few years ago.

Well, that’s a good example actually. We aren’t doing the Van Gogh. We’re doing a Van Gogh. Same thing with Jesus [1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ]. Same thing with T.S. Elliot [1994’s Tom & Viv]. You don’t want to have people go, “God, that looks, sounds—he’s really like him!” Takes you out of the movie, ironically. It’s better to say, “Who the fuck is this guy?” Then you have more room to really explore what’s going on. That’s in theory. I’m not the kind of actor who’s in it to display. If ever I get self-conscious about displaying a craft thing, I don’t. Where I have that pressure, I get boxed into that, that’s not what turns me on. It’s the leap off the cliff that turns me on.

You mentioned that you liked that Patricia came in with an understanding of celebrity and those dynamics in the film.

And I’m this kid from Wisconsin.

Well, yes. I was going to ask how you connected to that part of the movie and the character.

I have some distance from that. Themes of getting older and being in a certain twilight—having that certain level of success and worrying about corruption and that kind of thing—while I can imagine and understand those things, I’m dumb about it. [Laughs]

In terms of where this character finds himself at, though, I did find your portrayal quite poignant. Was there something you connected to in him just in terms of that sense of holding on to that legacy, that record?

When he finds words, he finds the beauty of that, he finds the function of that and that’s his job. I love my job and I devote my life to it in a lot of ways, and I will do things to support that and keep it going. In his case, I don’t do drugs around the clock like he does. But it’s interesting to see how people support that mission in their lives. That thing that makes them feel whole, that thing that makes them feel useful and feel connected. He’s a touching figure because, what fuels him? This thing that ultimately destroys him. I related to it. It’s easy to relate to. Not so much specifically to writer’s block; it’s really about managing a life and managing desires. But ultimately his desire in the end is really to work it right.

Do you get used to being thought of for larger-than-life roles like these?

[Laughs] I don’t know where people get this. I think they just know my film filmography, partially. I do lots of different kinds of things. Probably the lesser-known are opportunities to do different things. Not that we’re out to prove anything, but it’s just a question of fun and mixing it up. I will say though that I’m no great fan of very passive performances that make people come to the performance. I think you’ve got to put something out there. You’ve got to risk something. So I do like energetic performances. I like performances where you have to drive the material. Maybe I’m guilty. I get a little frustrated when people think that’s my go-to, because I don’t think of it that way. People are so used to TV and naturalism and I think cinema’s better than that. There are greater possibilities because you’re dealing with color, sound, cutting, all these things. Sometimes it doesn’t jibe with naturalism.

You’re in an interesting position this fall. You have had four films at the festivals between Venice, Telluride, and Toronto. But Gonzo Girl is the only one with a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, right, which permits you to do press?

Yeah, you’re right.

Has it felt strange to see them premiere from afar, without participating? Especially with such an exciting mix of movies like Poor Things?

To be in Venice with three films and not be able to go broke my heart. But then I thought, “Is it just because you want to have a good time?” I live in Italy and it’s exciting to see friends, it’s exciting to dress up. “Does the film fly or not in real time?” That’s fun. It’s important for talent to get involved, particularly the independent films—it’s important. That’s why I’m so grateful to hear that we got an interim agreement. And the word on that of course is, if a little independent company can do it, why can’t a big studio? But I feel bad that I won’t be able to go to Venice.

Did you wrestle with coming here at all? Not all actors with an interim agreement decided to attend in the end.

Not at all. Not at all. Because SAG supports it. And I think we’ve got to keep it going. I get their strategy, but I also think sometimes particularly hardcore industry people, they don’t think about the world enough. The world market. If we don’t participate in these film festivals, if we don’t participate in the selling of movies abroad, before you know it, we’re all going to be watching German action movies. Since we’re here with the blessings of SAG, I don’t know why someone wouldn’t come if they had an interim agreement. I know a lot of people didn’t. I guess they’d feel like it’s not showing solidarity, but SAG endorses it and it’s encouraging. So no, I didn’t feel strange.

I feel stranger than I’m not working because I had some things that I wanted to do very badly and who knows if they’ll get back up again. Then I sit myself down and say, “Don’t be selfish. Don’t think about yourself, think about the future.” Clearly there are some things to work out. I never talked about what I do as a business, but the business around what I do has changed so much where stuff has to be addressed. The proliferation of the middleman and all kinds of things, and profits up and salaries down. I don’t do it for the money. But you can only get screwed so much.

Is the pause causing you to take stock at all, in terms of your career and how you want to work going forward when this stops?

That was the pandemic. [Laughs] There are periods of waiting. There’ve always been periods. For many years I had a theater company, so I worked every day. I really am a guy that likes to work daily and even when you’re not shooting, you’re usually preparing something. I think the strange thing right now is the uncertainty. I just finished something in July, so since the strike happened—that’s substantial, but it’s not a killer. July, August, September, that’s three months. That happens to me sometimes anyway—even when I’m making three, four movies a year, there’s a three-month break—but during that time I’m preparing something. I’m dreaming about it and I’m thinking about it and I’m excited about it. Everybody needs a little bit of a carrot. And when you don’t have that carrot, when you’re told that carrot may not be there, it’s like, okay, maybe that does put it back on yourself. But I’m like a child that wants candy. I won’t accept that. And if it doesn't get resolved, then something radical will happen. There will be a collapse.

This interview has been edited and condensed.