Willem Dafoe has played many iconic roles, but his face is one that is not often lost in a crowd. However, he was not always aware of this himself.

When it comes to actors with a distinct and incomparable appearance, there are few who fit the category more than Willem Dafoe. As someone who is instantly recognizable, no matter what role he plays on screen, it is hard to imagine a time when the actor did not realize just how unique his appearance is. In an interview for the Today show, the Poor Things star recounted a story of how he became aware of exactly how iconic his face is.

Dafoe is a veteran of cinema. From his uncredited debut in Heaven’s Gate in 1980, to his upcoming appearance as Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz in Robert Eggers’ remake of Nosferatu, it is hard not to notice the actor in every guise. Among the many roles he has performed, it was perhaps his role in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man that showed just how much he could use his face to impressive effect. As Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Dafoe was able to switch effortlessly between the two personas without any need for the make-up or special effects tricks that other actors would require.

Although he was not always aware of just how unique his face is, Dafoe shared with Today that it was during a trip on a New York subway that he discovered the truth. He said:

“I’ve learned I have a distinctive face, something that I didn’t know,” Dafoe said. “I’ll always remember, I was on the subway one night years ago when New York was still pretty rough, and I was taking my kid by subway from downtown to the Bronx. And some guys got on the train… and they’re sitting there, and they’re looking at me, and they’re looking, kind of, you know, rough. And I think, ‘God, even with my son here, these guys come out, [and maybe] they’ll rob me for money. Something bad is going to happen.’ Because they were looking kind of mean, and they’re looking at each other. Then I heard one say, ‘Yeah, gotta be him. Nobody looks like that motherf***er!’ That’s when I knew it.”

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What Movies Are Coming Up Next for Willem Dafoe?

Since making a triumphant return to the world of Marvel in 2021 by reprising his role as Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home, some 20 years after his previous appearance, Dafoe has starred in 10 movies, including Wes Andersons’s Asteroid City, Poor Things, and as part of the English dub cast of The Boy and the Heron. However, the actor has several high-profile movies on the horizon.

Among several movies currently in post-production, Dafoe’s role in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu was recently teased with a first look at the vampire hunter Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz. The actor recently spilled details about his role in the long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice, in which he appears as a former B-movie star who works as a police officer in the afterlife.

Additionally, Poor Things – a movie that did see Dafoe needing to spend several hours in the make-up chair – is currently playing in theaters, and those wanting to dip back into Dafoe’s Green Goblin performances can find both Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: No Way Home streaming on Netflix.