While Spider-Man: No Way Home wasn't afraid to bring some memes to life, star Willem Dafoe wanted his performance to be more than just joke fodder.

Dafoe spoke to The New York Times about reprising his role as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin for the MCU's third Spider-Man film. And while he's always been game to play the character, he wanted this outing to be more involved than the last couple.

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"Even in the second and third installments [of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films], having me do little cameos, it was a pleasure to just see everyone again and stick my toe in the pool," Dafoe said of returning briefly for Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. "But I didn’t have the imagination of continuing on."

When it came time for No Way Home, Dafoe got to be much more involved than simply playing a hallucination. He actually got to step back onto the glider and play his conflicting character.

"When [Spider-Man producer] Amy Pascal and [director] Jon Watts called me up and said we'd like to pitch you this idea, I thought, 'This is crazy. But let’s see what they have to say,'" Dafoe continued. "I really didn’t want to do a cameo. I wanted to make sure there was something substantial enough to do that wasn't just a tip of the hat. And the other thing was, I said I really want there to be action — I want to take part in action scenes. Because that’s really fun for me. It’s the only way to root the character. Otherwise, it just becomes a series of memes."

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A number of Dafoe's moments from the original Spider-Man have become memes, especially his line, "You know, I'm something of a scientist myself," with "scientist" swapped out for all manner of things. No Way Home boldly has Dafoe reference the line/meme in the film, but the actor seems to have balanced that by making sure Goblin gets plenty of juicy fight scenes to ensure his character is a pivotal player rather than a goofy cameo. And the writers shared this conviction, as they didn't want No Way Home to simply be fan service.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is in theaters now.

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Source: The New York Times, via The Direct