DON'T FENCE HIM IN DESPITE RECENT BAD-GUY ROLES, DAFOE DEFIES STEREOTYPING WITH ECLECTIC BODY OF WORK.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

WHEN YOU'VE played a comic-book villain, a bloodsucking actor and other assorted lunatics, is it any wonder movie audiences will classify you as as sinner more often than saint?

Only if they're short-sighted, says Willem Dafoe, the performer ``Entertainment Tonight's'' Leonard Maltin labeled ``the prototypical postmodern heavy'' after seeing the actor's breakthrough film role in ``To Live and Die in L.A.''

``I bristle at that,'' Dafoe says of the occasional ``creep of choice'' designation. ``Get the filmography out. You're forgetting about 'Animal Factory,' the movie I did with Steve Buscemi. I don't think that's true of Jesus (``The Last Temptation of Christ'') or the guy in 'Platoon.' I just don't think it's true.

``I think I play characters who aren't typical, who are ambiguous and filled with contradictions and stand outside the mainstream,'' he concedes. ``That's the nature of playing interesting characters.''

He'll have to forgive our short memory. Dafoe's two most visible projects of late, the small-budget Paul Schrader drama ``Auto Focus'' and the blockbuster ``Spider-Man'' both feature the actor playing the kind of person most of us would cross the street in heavy traffic to avoid.

In ``Auto Focus,'' Dafoe plays John Carpenter, the video technician and procurer to sex-addicted ``Hogan's Heroes'' star Bob Crane. In ``Spider- Man,'' just released on video, Dafoe's millionaire scientist Norman Osborne loses a Jekyll-and-Hyde battle to his psychotic alter ego, the Green Goblin.

The Goblin may be a tough one to make a nice guy case for, but Carpenter runs deeper. Dafoe sees Carpenter - who died of a heart attack shortly after being acquitted of Crane's murder - as a tragic figure.

``He's also a guy that means very well, sort of a glad-hander who wants everyone to be happy,'' says Dafoe, speaking by phone from Seattle, where he is appearing in the Wooster Group's stage performance of ``To You, the Birdie!'' coming to Los Angeles this weekend. ``I was mostly attracted to the relationship he had with Crane, which was so intimate and so distanced at the same time. In the story we tell, it's interesting to see a portrait of a couple of guys that aren't conscious of what their actions bring.

``I don't think I can play a character without finding out what that relationship is,'' he adds. ``When you read a proposal, sometimes it's not clear what the pleasures or attractions are, but if it has some sort of a pull on you, part of the process is finding out what attracted you.''

``Auto Focus' '' director, Paul Schrader, had directed Dafoe twice before (in ``Light Sleeper'' and ``Affliction''). When Schrader approached Dafoe about ``Auto Focus,'' the director offered a part that would allow the two-time Oscar-nominated actor to use his sense of humor.

Watching Carpenter and Crane (played by Greg Kinnear) poring over lurid photo albums and pornographic home movies, Schrader likens the pair to ``The Odd Couple's'' Oscar Madison and Felix Unger.

``Many directors like Willem when he is menacing or grotesque; I like him when he's vulnerable and needy. He has wonderful range and colors in that area,'' says Schrader by e-mail from Morocco where he is filming his next movie. ``His John Carpenter is completely new for him, a character one might more likely associate with Philip Seymour Hoffman.''

Dafoe's main source of research was Mark Dawson, son of ``Hogan's Heroes'' co-star Richard Dawson, who became a close family friend. During Carpenter's murder trial, the younger Dawson shot home-video footage of the former video guru with the intention of making a documentary. The project never came together, but Dafoe got to see the film.

The actor, who has played characters based on real people in the past, says the preparation changes somewhat from what it would be for a fictional character.

``Sometimes you're dealing with a certain responsibility to people, if they're around - and if they're helping you research the role you're going to do,'' says Dafoe, whose past real-life assignments have included poet T.S. Eliot (``Tom & Viv'') and actor Max Schreck (``Shadow of the Vampire'').

``Carpenter's widow did come to the set, and I'd be lying if I told you I didn't want her blessings on some level.''

There was also a certain amount of preproduction rehearsal and guy bonding time with Kinnear, although the low-budget, shoot-it-quick nature of the project didn't allow for huge amounts of preparation. Dafoe noticed he and Kinnear have slightly different work habits, but nothing that made ``Auto Focus'' in any way a difficult partnership.

``He's very aware and very bright, and I had the sense he can plot out the points of the character much better than I can,'' Dafoe says of Kinnear. I'm good at being there, being present and having stuff happen once I'm in the scene. I think he probably can chart his progress a little better.''

The Green Goblin's fate in ``Spider-Man'' means Dafoe won't be back for the sequel, but the actor isn't exactly starved for work. He's finishing up work on ``The Clearing'' opposite Robert Redford and Helen Mirren and has ``Once Upon a Time in Mexico'' - the sequel to ``Desperado'' - in the can for director Robert Rodriguez. Dafoe will also be voicing a leading role in Pixar's fishy tale ``Finding Nemo.''

Those looking to catch Dafoe live need journey no farther than UCLA's Freud Playhouse, where Dafoe is re-creating the role of King Theseus in ``To You, the Birdie!'' which starts an 11-performance run this weekend. The role was created for Dafoe, a founding member of the innovative New York-based theater company.

An adaptation of Racine's ``Phedre'' translated by Paul Schmidt, ``Birdie!'' features much of the high-tech sound and video work that is a Wooster Group signature. Director Elizabeth LeCompte - who is also Dafoe's partner of 25 years - created the piece with Dafoe and fellow founding member Kate Valk in mind. Valk plays Phedre, the Greek queen who nurses an obsessive love for her stepson. Dafoe is King Theseus.

Wooster Group alumni include Jill Clayburgh, Spaulding Gray and Frances McDormand, who has performed in ``To You, the Birdie!'' but will not take part in the UCLA engagement.

Dafoe has no difficulty fitting in performance engagements. He has participated in most of the Group's international and U.S. tour dates since December, noting that it was his work in the theater that gained him the attention of film producers and directors in the first place.

``Obviously, the film works as a higher profile and even probably greater social and cultural cachet. People obviously identify me with that more,'' he says. ``But every day I'm in the business of working at the Wooster Group, then I go away to make movies.''

TO YOU, THE BIRDIE!

Where: Freud Playhouse, UCLA campus, Westwood.

When: Opens Friday. Showtimes 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays, 3 p.m. Nov. 16; through Nov. 17.

Tickets: $15 to $60. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Willem Dafoe, left, and Ari Fliakos in a scene from ``To You, the Birdie!'' opening Friday.

(2) Dafoe as video technician John Carpenter in ``Auto Focus.''

(3) ... and as the Green Goblin's alter ego, Norman Osborn, in ``Spider- Man.''