It's his RBF. (Resting Bitch Face, or if you wish, Resting Bastard Face.) When he's not emoting his heavy-lidded eyes, high forehead, and the down-turned corners of his mouth convey both intelligence and disdain. It's not intentional body language on his part, but it conveys all of those traits you want in an evil character. And when he does emote, all of those characteristics are enhanced.

There are many character actors, many if not most of whom are lovely people IRL, that share the same physical attributes and are sought out as "baddies." Michael Shannon, M. Emmet Walsh, F. Murray Abraham, Danny Trejo, and numerous others come to mind. Just search for "character actor bad guys" and look at their faces. You know they're the "bad guy" the second they arrive on-screen.

@AlienFanatic said:

It's his RBF. (Resting Bitch Face, or if you wish, Resting Bastard Face.) When he's not emoting his heavy-lidded eyes, high forehead, and the down-turned corners of his mouth convey both intelligence and disdain. It's not intentional body language on his part, but it conveys all of those traits you want in an evil character. And when he does emote, all of those characteristics are enhanced.

There are many character actors, many if not most of whom are lovely people IRL, that share the same physical attributes and are sought out as "baddies." Michael Shannon, M. Emmet Walsh, F. Murray Abraham, Danny Trejo, and numerous others come to mind. Just search for "character actor bad guys" and look at their faces. You know they're the "bad guy" the second they arrive on-screen.

Yeah, but if I were a professional actor, I'd tell my agent to find me a variety of scripts, and I'd audition for broad, interesting parts that are not always the same. Sheesh, even Denzel Washington plays against his type as a bad guy in Training Day, and when actors do something we don't expect, it's all the more interesting, well, to me, anyway.

its easy to distinguish between the good and the bad as the search field is for an amateur, reptile

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@AlienFanatic said:

It's his RBF. (Resting Bitch Face, or if you wish, Resting Bastard Face.) When he's not emoting his heavy-lidded eyes, high forehead, and the down-turned corners of his mouth convey both intelligence and disdain. It's not intentional body language on his part, but it conveys all of those traits you want in an evil character. And when he does emote, all of those characteristics are enhanced.

There are many character actors, many if not most of whom are lovely people IRL, that share the same physical attributes and are sought out as "baddies." Michael Shannon, M. Emmet Walsh, F. Murray Abraham, Danny Trejo, and numerous others come to mind. Just search for "character actor bad guys" and look at their faces. You know they're the "bad guy" the second they arrive on-screen.

Yeah, but if I were a professional actor, I'd tell my agent to find me a variety of scripts, and I'd audition for broad, interesting parts that are not always the same. Sheesh, even Denzel Washington plays against his type as a bad guy in Training Day, and when actors do something we don't expect, it's all the more interesting, well, to me, anyway.

To each their own, but I repeatedly hear these actors say that playing the "bad guy" is the most fun. They chew the scenery, have crazy monologues, sulk, sneer, and emote like crazy. And they're MEMORABLE. In fact, great villains are more memorable than heroes. Darth Vader is way cooler than Luke. Hans is much more interesting to watch than John McClane. Thulsa Doom, played by none other than Darth Vader (okay, freaking incredible James Earl Jones), is far more enigmatic than monosyllabic Conan. Zod is FAR more interesting--in BOTH Superman II and the Snyder movie--than Supes himself. Hollywood makes most "heroes" on an assembly line; it doesn't matter WHO plays Bond, for instance, he's virtually the same person in every sequel. But the bad guy? My god, an actor can do ANYTHING with them!

I'll leave you with this, obvious scene.

@AlienFanatic said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@AlienFanatic said:

It's his RBF. (Resting Bitch Face, or if you wish, Resting Bastard Face.) When he's not emoting his heavy-lidded eyes, high forehead, and the down-turned corners of his mouth convey both intelligence and disdain. It's not intentional body language on his part, but it conveys all of those traits you want in an evil character. And when he does emote, all of those characteristics are enhanced.

There are many character actors, many if not most of whom are lovely people IRL, that share the same physical attributes and are sought out as "baddies." Michael Shannon, M. Emmet Walsh, F. Murray Abraham, Danny Trejo, and numerous others come to mind. Just search for "character actor bad guys" and look at their faces. You know they're the "bad guy" the second they arrive on-screen.

Yeah, but if I were a professional actor, I'd tell my agent to find me a variety of scripts, and I'd audition for broad, interesting parts that are not always the same. Sheesh, even Denzel Washington plays against his type as a bad guy in Training Day, and when actors do something we don't expect, it's all the more interesting, well, to me, anyway.

To each their own, but I repeatedly hear these actors say that playing the "bad guy" is the most fun. They chew the scenery, have crazy monologues, sulk, sneer, and emote like crazy. And they're MEMORABLE. In fact, great villains are more memorable than heroes. Darth Vader is way cooler than Luke. Hans is much more interesting to watch than John McClane. Thulsa Doom, played by none other than Darth Vader (okay, freaking incredible James Earl Jones), is far more enigmatic than monosyllabic Conan. Zod is FAR more interesting--in BOTH Superman II and the Snyder movie--than Supes himself. Hollywood makes most "heroes" on an assembly line; it doesn't matter WHO plays Bond, for instance, he's virtually the same person in every sequel. But the bad guy? My god, an actor can do ANYTHING with them!

I'll leave you with this, obvious scene.

Good points!

As you said, "to each, his own." But, for the sake of discussion, consider:

About actors, I think it does matter "who plays" Bond, or Batman, or Superman, and that explains why there is no end of discussion about these.

I loved Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber, and he had delicious lines, but that's because the writers wrote those lines for him. They could just as easily have written those lines for McClane. In Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, they wrote all the fun lines for Ace, not for Ray Finkle. In The Lord of the Rings, again, most of the quotable quotes are from various good guys - few if any are of Sauron. So, there's nothing scientifically intrinsic about crazy monologues only going to the bad guys. Getting back to The Hunger Games, I think Katniss is far more interesting than President Snow. And that's not on Sutherland, he worked with what the script contained for the character, which wasn't much.

At any rate, I think the whole "sympathy for the devil" trope is tired. If someone killed your loved one, how much interest would you have in their backstory as some kind of explanation for why they did it? Our fixation with evil is curious - yes, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer are more "memorable" than the cops who finally took them down, but that's not necessarily a good thing. I think writers pander to society's lowest common deonomator too often.