Villainous Portrayal Quotes

One of my jobs as an actor, regardless of who I play - even if I'm playing a despicable character - is to make people think that that character could exist, that he's real, and the way to do that is to make him believable. He doesn't have to be likable or charming, but he just has to be believable. That is someone who I could see on a bus. That is someone who I could walk past in the street.

I would love to play a villain someday in that I think that what I've done with my whole career is walk this tightrope between charming and creepy, and I always fall on the charming side. I'd like to fall on the creepy side and be like one of those scary old men, like really charming villains.

In England, I'm known for playing villains.

The best part of a great movie is a great villain and I usually have a tendency to root for the bad guy.

If you're going to play a villain, there's no greater compliment than being told that you give people nightmares. I never thought I would be the actor that would give people nightmares.

I loved comic books. I loved Miss Marvel. I talk about Harley Quinn all the time because I think playing villains is so much more fun than playing the good guy because who wouldn't want to go to work and just be crazy?

There are certain artists and filmmakers who, I get the impression, are trying to show off how bad their characters can be, how immoral their characters can be.

I don't think any of the journalists in 'Broadchurch' are villainous. I think they're all trying to do their jobs under difficult circumstances.

There is always something about the villains that I'm able to play, quote unquote, that isn't villainous.

I like to play bad guys, since good guys are always beaten up several times during the movie. Bad guys are beaten only once, in the end.

Villains can often be one note and I would say in that case, it’s not fun to play the villain. It’s fun to play the villain if he a) has dimension and b) the villain gets to do all the things in the movie that in life he would get punished for. In the movie, you’re applauded for them if you do them with panache. And so that’s why it’s more fun to play the villain.

I noted about Cate Blanchett was her very positive lack of concern for how she turns out in Cinderella. She is happy to be a villainess and very pleased to be encouraged as I did with her to reveal this backstory and feel as though this was very human, that this broken heart of hers, if you might regard it that way, would be visible, but she never played for sympathy and I really admired that about her, so she's just there, she just is and uncompromisingly.

I love playing a villain. I think that there's something freeing about that, and it's a different kind of challenge. More than anything, for me as an actor, it's about challenging myself and doing as many different things as I can.

I always root for the bad guy and I don't think you have a great movie without a great villain.