Willem Dafoe, Platoon, and the People Power Revolution: The Hollywood-Meets-History Moment You Never Knew About
Willem Dafoe at the 2019 Governors Awards in Los Angeles. Via ABS-CBN News Mario Anzuoni, Reuters
So you know, Willem Dafoe? Yes, that Willem Dafoe, the guy who played Green Goblin, Jesus, and way too many unhinged villains, has an unexpected connection to one of the most powerful moments in Philippine history: the EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986.
Back in the ‘80s, before he was terrorizing Peter Parker, Dafoe was in the Philippines shooting Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), the war film that would later win Best Picture at the Oscars. Production took place deep in the jungles of Luzon, where Dafoe and his co-stars (including a young Charlie Sheen and Johnny Depp) were enduring a grueling, method-style filming process to portray American soldiers in the Vietnam War.
But while they were rehearsing battle scenes, a real-life revolution was unfolding just miles away. The streets of Manila were packed with millions of Filipinos standing up against the Marcos dictatorship, armed with nothing but prayers, flowers, and an unwavering demand for democracy. It was a moment that would forever change the course of Philippine history.
The political chaos in the country didn’t go unnoticed by Platoon’s cast and crew. At one point, the situation got so intense that the production company faced having to decide on halting and postponing or canceling the production and risk losing the film entirely (also since he made a deal with the military at the time to rent some machinery and equipment as props). Oliver Stone crossed his fingers and chose to postpone filming to March 20, leaving his cast and crew stuck in Manila watching the EDSA Revolution unfold in front of their very eyes.
In a 2019 interview with Vanity Fair talking about his long acting career, Willem Dafoe recounted his unexpected experience during the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution in the Philippines. "I arrived in the Philippines and my plane was the last plane in because there was a revolution,” Dafoe recalled. With production halted and as he learned more about the situation, he and a few others spent "three or four days... out on the streets with the people." Reflecting on the event, he described it as "an incredible feeling because it was a revolution that happened for the most part without violence."
Check out the full interview here:
Willem Dafoe’s unexpected brush with the EDSA Revolution is one of those surreal, almost cinematic moments where Hollywood and history collide. While he came to the Philippines to play a soldier in a war film, he ended up witnessing a real-life fight for democracy, one that unfolded without gunfire but with the collective power of the people. It’s a wild reminder that the Philippines has always been a place of resilience, revolution, and stories worth telling. And sometimes, even Hollywood’s biggest stars find themselves in the middle of it, watching history unfold in real-time.