# Actors who embrace the evil of their character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660 "2014-01-01T21:00:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/21 "2014-01-01T23:59:37Z")
No one’s mentioned Alan Rickman? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/22 "2014-01-02T00:02:59Z")
Louise Fletcher in _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ played Nurse Ratched without a hint of warmth. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/23 "2014-01-02T00:06:50Z")
It’s black comedy by turns, but the leads in both versions of “House of Cards” seemed to truly relish the role. Kevin Spacey has played other villains, but Ian Richardson said he hated the character but loved playing him. ---
**Author:** ![Private\_Bin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@Private\_Bin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Private_Bin)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/24 "2014-01-02T01:41:47Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > No one’s mentioned Alan Rickman? He doesn’t play villains, he just plays _very interesting people._\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/25 "2014-01-02T02:01:08Z")
Jeremy Irons. But I think it may just be a reflection of his real life. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/26 "2014-01-02T02:15:52Z")
> [@Private\_Bin](#): > > He doesn’t play villains, he just plays _very interesting people._\*\* Hans Gruber? The Sherriff of Nottingham? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/27 "2014-01-02T02:16:34Z")
In Primal Fear, it turns out … Edward Norton was the evilest motherfucker of evil motherfuckers. I think its pretty awesome the way he played the innocent psychopath. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/28 "2014-01-02T02:23:20Z")
Two of the movie villains who stick in my head unwanted is the kid in **Kids** who begins the movie with rape, and another kid who ends the movie the same way. They’re incredibly loathsome and believable. **Justified** is a great show, not least because of its phenomenal villains. Some of them are too likeable, and others are too over-the-top for the OP, but Mags in season 2 ought to qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/29 "2014-01-02T02:44:08Z")
If TV shows count then Ian McShane, Powers Boothe, Garret Dillahunt, William Sanderson and Gerald McRaney did capital jobs of being villains in Deadwood. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/30 "2014-01-02T03:54:41Z")
Donald Sutherland, Keifer Sutherland, and James Cromwell. Cromwell played both the taciturn but good-hearted Farmer Hoggett in Babe and also the chief of police in LA Confidential. “Do you have a valediction, me boyo?” His eyes were _cold_, cold as the darkest corner of space. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/31 "2014-01-02T04:00:44Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Jeremy Irons. But I think it may just be a reflection of his real life. 😕 I saw him on “Who Are You?” and he seemed perfectly normal once I got past his sepulchral voice. I looked further to see if there was much scandal behind him and it’s nada, beyond his saying some stupid things and supporting some stupid causes that you can usually expect out of show people (not normally the brightest bulbs). Even his odd comment on gay marriage, about fathers marrying their sons for inheritance tax avoidance, can be laughed off as something an old, rich Brit would come up with, like living in Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/32 "2014-01-02T04:33:37Z")
Kathy Bates in Misery. I can never look at her the same way and I like her, but that character sends chills down my spine. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/33 "2014-01-02T04:56:42Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > My sister and I were, for reasons I can’t now reconstruct, talking about Michael Douglas, and she said that one of the reasons she didn’t care for him as an actor was that he isn’t willing to be dislikable – even when he’s playing a bad guy, as in _Wall Street_, he holds back a little. Has he ever played a part where that was merited, though? Gordon Gekko is the villain but he’s not supposed to be perfectly evil. Indeed, he’s supposed to not be dislikable; Gordon Gekko SHOULD be seductive in a way. Sherrerds’s nomination of Laura Fraser in “Breaking Bad” is a really great example of an actor truly embracing a genuinely horrible human being. Lydia is an absolutely detestable piece of shit, and Fraser nailed it. I don’t think she appears in more than six episodes, tops, but I was hoping for her to be killed the entire time. She’s not a flat ice queen villain, either; she’s just a person turned evil through avarice. You can believe Lydias exist. I think an excellent example, though, maybe the best, is William H. Macy’s playing of Jerry Lundegaard in “Fargo.” Jerry is not a moustache-twirling villain - he is instead the most realistic villain in film, ever, in my opinion, and 100% unlikable. He’s a putrid weasel, a liar, a thief, and a mousy, passive-aggressive doofus who appears to have not a single redeeming quality. Macy absolutely carries the film; I believe he is onscreen more than any other character, and he plays the part perfectly and never, ever gives you a reason to like him. That Macy in real life is by all accounts one of the nicest guys in show business makes the performance all the more remarkable. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/34 "2014-01-02T05:23:38Z")
Michael Gambon’s character Albert in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. Just horrifying. And you could see how another actor might sort of ham it up, make it an over the top but kind of funny performance, but here, Gambon really is quite vile. ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/35 "2014-01-02T05:35:25Z")
I think Willem Dafoe always plays a great villain, and certainly has the looks for the part. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/36 "2014-01-02T05:50:32Z")
Gary Oldman in _Leon: The Professional_ Michael Rooker in _Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer_ Dae-han Ji in _Oldboy_ Laurence Olivier in _Marathon Man_ ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/37 "2014-01-02T06:12:18Z")
Malcolm “Alex De Large & Caligula” McDowell ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/38 "2014-01-02T06:15:47Z")
I have to disagree that comedies are not about believability, but that should be for a different thread. Some of this has to do with the writing of said villain. Believable writing, well very few people have no ‘good’ points. Hitler liked dogs. So if the writing has some parts of the villain character doing something nice, then it’s not the actor’s fault. I do know what you’re talking about, the actor not committing to the role fully because they want to be liked. I know a lot of people who ‘like’ Michael Corleone. Gary Oldman, on the other hand, can be completely unlikeable as the villain with or without going over the top. In The Fifth Element, (over the top) or a film like The Contender, where is he is just the Senator trying to find out about a Vice Presidental nominee. He’s played a lot of villains and he’s pretty good at it. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/39 "2014-01-02T07:24:13Z")
Clancy Brown as Kurgan in Highlander . I’m surprised no one has mentioned Jack Nicholson yet. To add someone that might surprise others, Gregory Peck was lots of fun in the B movie, The a Boys from Brazil. “I’m a doctor you bitch!” ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/40 "2014-01-02T08:00:14Z")
This thread reminds me of something C. Thomas Howell said to [the Onion AV Club](http://www.avclub.com/article/c-thomas-howell-on-ithe-outsidersi-blackface-and-h-92458) about his character of George Foyet, one of the most memorable serial killers from the TV show _Criminal Minds_. When he was in a movie with Rutger Hauer, he asked how Rutger played such great bad guys. The reply was: “I don’t play bad guys.” That informed Howell’s performance as Foyet. He thinks that absent that advice, he would’ve overacted, been too broad. By not playing him as a bad person, he thinks, he made the character better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660.md?page=3)