Willem Dafoe Warns Against Trump at 2025 Venice Biennale Theater Festival

Actor and theater artist Willem Dafoe warned of growing U.S. government interference in the arts during the launch of his two-year term as artistic director of the Venice Biennale’s International Theater Festival.

Speaking to Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye during the festival, Dafoe criticized President Donald Trump’s cultural policies, including the president’s takeover of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where Trump recently installed himself as chairman and artistic director.

“For someone that supposedly wants to limit government, the government has all of a sudden become very invasive,” Dafoe said. “Let the people do their art, let the art talk. We can develop our sense of compassion and responsibility socially, leave that to the people.”

Asked specifically about Trump’s leadership at the Kennedy Center, Dafoe said, “There’s many [dangers]. And it’s not just about bad theater. I can’t imagine Donald Trump programming a good series of performances at the Kennedy Center.”

Dafoe’s 2025 festival program features a mix of experimental and international theater, including the European premiere of Richard Foreman’s 1988 play Symphony for Rats by the Wooster Group, the Italian premiere of Changes by Berlin’s Schaubühne, and new works by Romeo Castellucci, Milo Rau, and Davide Iodice. The festival will also honor longtime collaborators and avant-garde pioneers such as Elizabeth LeCompte, Ursina Lardi, and Thomas Richards, alongside performances, workshops, and installations highlighting 50 years of influential theater at the Biennale.

The Venice Biennale International Theater Festival runs through June 15, 2025.