You know an actor’s done a good job playing a villain when even an off-set look at them makes your blood run cold.
For me, that honour goes to Imelda Staunton ― since her role as Mrs Umbridge, I haven’t been able to watch her in anything else without shuddering.
I’m always keen to hear about actors who so perfected their part that they had a similar effect on others ― so I was pretty excited to read the responses to Reddit user u/suebustyfriend’s post in the Subreddit r/moviecritic.
“Which actor managed to nail being the ‘bad guy?’”, they asked.
Here are some of the most-upvoted responses:
1) Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon in Game Of Thrones
“Strongly agree, but what about Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton?” u/stoneuf
2) Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus in Gladiator
“He’s so damn good as Commodus. So easy to hate essentially from the second he arrives on screen... Incredible performance.” u/NoTransportation888
3) Alan Rickman in pretty much all his roles
“RIP.” Recent-Emu-1865
“First guy that came to mind.” u/Independent_Chair578
4) Christoph Waltz as Hans Lada in Inglourious Basterds
“He’s just so right for that part, but we also have to credit the writing.” u/Slow_Animator_7241
5) Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal
“Hopkins is such an incredibly talented actor. I don’t think there’s a role on this planet that he couldn’t absolutely nail. They could cast him as Gru in a live-action Despicable Me and he’d still nail it.” u/Thats-Not-Rice
6) Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill ‘The Butcher’ in Gangs of New York
“He’s too good. Bill the Butcher is terrifying.” u/malkadevorah2
7) Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in The Matrix
“This is the guy that did Elrond, Agent Smith, Anthony in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Red Skull... How?!” u/agent_flounder
8) Willem Dafoe in, well, lots of movies
“When he plays the good guy he is Willem Dafriend.” u/DingleBarryGoldwater
9) Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Bodaker in Robocop
“He’s even better in the Patriot (dark comedy). Incredible range.” u/DoctorRonamoe
10) Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight
“Nothing is scarier than giving someone all the punishment you can and having them laugh at you. ‘You’ve got nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength’ ― chilling.” u/exciting-Delivery-96
11) Angela Lansbury as Mrs Eleanor Shaw Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate
“She is stone-cold and utterly ruthless. Played completely against type and nailed it.” u/cmgblkpt
12) Lena Olin as Mona Demarkov in Romeo Is Bleeding
“The cold glee with which she kills people is tremendous.” u/cmgblkpt
13) Colin Farrell as The Penguin in The Batman
“He turned out to be a fantastic actor.” u/malkadevorah2
14) Andrew Scott as Moriarty in Sherlock
“They wrote outlandish lines no one could ever pull off credibly. They said: ‘I. Will. BURN the heart out of you!’
Then in walked Andrew.” u/dotsmyfavorite2
Do you disagree with any of these or have anything to add? Let us know!
