Dafoe and Pattinson discuss The Witch director’s new film The Lighthouse

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If there's an easier way to do something, Robert Eggers clearly isn't a filmmaker who's going to take that easier option. This was first evident in how dedicated he was to having period-accurate dialogue in his film THE WITCH (pictured above), and further evident in the fact that he shot his next film, THE LIGHTHOUSE, on black & white 35mm film instead of going the route most filmmakers would these days, which would be to shoot the movie with digital cameras and remove the color in post-production. 

Apparently working with Eggers isn't always an easy time for actors, either. During a recent conversation between THE LIGHTHOUSE co-stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe that was published by Interview magazine, the actors mentioned that the conditions they were working in on that project were so harsh that they barely talked to each other outside of their scenes together – with Pattinson adding that he "hardly talked to anyone" during production, and didn't understand the script like Dafoe did.

DAFOE: I must admit you had me puzzled a lot of the time.

PATTINSON: I realized in the rehearsal period that you understood the script a lot more than I did, so I didn’t want to reveal that.

DAFOE: You clearly weren’t into rehearsal. Maybe it was the nature of the role, but I always felt like you wanted to leap in and not work stuff out, as though it was more real to confront it without any pre-knowledge. I was reminded of the old Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier quote, “Go.”

PATTINSON: My idea for The Lighthouse was that if I don’t really understand this script on a cerebral level, then I’ll try to understand it on a physical level. But I must say that I’ve never seen someone with such a supernatural level of energy as you. I remember watching you and being, like, “How are you doing this?”

DAFOE: I’ll take that as flattery, but I’ll also return it by saying that your approach was fierce. You were a warrior. 

The talk goes on to reveal that the filming of one scene in particular had Pattison quite upset: 

DAFOE: Do you remember when we were being sprayed with that water and it stung so bad? Those kinds of things never leave you.

PATTINSON: That’s the closest I’ve come to punching a director. However much I love Robert [Eggers], there was a point where I did five takes walking across the beach, and after a while I was like, “What the f*ck is going on? I feel like you’re just spraying a fire hose in my face.” And he was like, “I am spraying a fire hose in your face.” It was like some kind of torture. It definitely creates an interesting energy.

Details on THE LIGHTHOUSE are scarce, but we do know that it's a thriller set in 1890 and centers on 

lighthouse keepers in Maine. 

The film is produced by Rodrigo Teixeira, Jan Van Hoy, Youree Henley, and Lourenço Sant’ Anna. A release date has not been announced, but A24 is expected to put THE LIGHTHOUSE out into the world sometime in 2019.