Willem Dafoe is the brilliant new face of Laphroaig — and he's got some wild ideas on how it tastes

Laphroaig has gone down the Hollywood route for its latest team up, revealing Willem Dafoe as the face of its new campaign.

The actor, who recently starred in The Phoenician Scheme and Nosferatu, is famed for playing complex, challenging characters so is perfect for fronting a whisky as robust as that of Laphroaig.

To celebrate the link-up, a short film called The Taste has been created, with Dafoe in the starring role, alongside a tease of a limited-edition whisky.

Shortlist was invited to the premier of the mini movie, with Dafoe in attendance, and it’s as quirky as you would hope, given the star lead.

Laphroaig x Willem Dafoe - The Taste - YouTube

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It begins with Dafoe telling the story of how he stayed in a wardrobe for two days when he was a boy, to get an understanding of what it would be like to be an astronaut.

He then tries to define what the taste of Laphroaig — explaining the drink is... “like kissing a mermaid in a rocky rowboat on a feisty sea”, “a damp yurt at Glastonbury after 10 days of smoke, fire and rain” and the wildest of all — “like licking a walrus chomping on a seaweed cigar.”

Perfect parody

It’s fantastic stuff with both Dafoe and famed music video director Tim Pope having a lot of fun.

And fun is just how Dafoe described it, when asked about the shoot at the event.

“Laphroaig approached me and I thought, ‘this will be fun’. I approached it just like I approach anything: I got to know the people a little bit, I liked the basic idea — this kind of parody, this attempt to try to describe [the whisky].

“I knew the Laphroaig brand even when I was young. And the people involved really love what they do and are really dedicated to what they're doing. And I get turned on by that, so I jumped in to try to make something. Tim was involved, so I really saw it as a creative opportunity.”

The short film is packed with instances that are primed for going viral, not that Dafoe cares about that stuff. Back in 2023 he famously went viral in a picture that Mark Ruffalo posted, of them both with some alpacas — something that’s hinted at in the film. But that’s as close as he wants to come to internet infamy.

“I don't have social media. I don't like to think about those things. I mean, I like to work. I know my life is always shifting,” he says. “The alpaca farm grew out of covid and a desire to sort of get back to nature and have a refuge.”

“My heart is in transformation and in doing work that challenges you. I think if you create too much outside of that, it not only encumbers how people the flexibility of how people can see you, but also, as I say, you start to believe certain things, and then you start to go, ‘oh, I don't do that, or that's not me, or oh, that doesn't represent me’.”

"It's not an attitude, it's just my DNA"

Acting then is where Dafoe’s passion lies but even he isn’t certain if a role will click, until it actually does.

“I don't know what it is that I do, so I have always got to scramble to find out where that engagement is, where that thing is that I connect with and that is just my only hope. You know, it's not an attitude, it's just my DNA.”

He continues: “Those things feed me, you know. I'm in it for the adventure and for the learning. Because when you learn stuff, it opens you up in a way that you feel, you know, you feel more alive.”

As for whisky, he’s sworn to secrecy but it does seem that some taste testing went on behind the scenes. While he admits his nose isn’t as sophisticated as the experts', he did impart some insight.

“One thing that I learned, and this is just a very simple thing, is that I thought, ‘okay, heat, smoke, heat, smoke — that drives everything and that is what I love’.

"But through blind tasting, for me, if it was overwhelming I couldn't taste the undertones, you know, and as the strength was less, I started finding other things. That was interesting.

"Strength sometimes covers up the subtle things.”

• This is the best whisky you should be taste testing.