10 Best Willem Dafoe Film Performances
5. John LeTour - Light Sleeper (1992)
Dafoe has been many things over his career - hitman, vampire, lover, grieving husband, supervillain, artist. In Light Sleeper, he plays John LeTour, a drug dealer who becomes disillusioned with his life and reconnects with his old flame, Marianne (Dana Delany).
As with The Hunter, Light Sleeper allows Dafoe to create a deep character study about a man who is at once endearing and terrible, as John switches between depressed drug addict to romantic lead, a scared anti-hero and a man seeking forgiveness.
Light Sleeper is a deep and unforgiving film from Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader, taking a daring dive into themes such as lonliness and addiction, remorse and regret. Dafoe is staggering in the lead role, making every step of John LeTour's journey one of complexities and hardships, but one still carrying a sense of hope as the story progresses.
A perfect film for Dafoe purists.