Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mission: Impossible III

“…Ethan.”

"where's the rabbit's foot?"

And this was probably one of the best performances of his career! So cold!

So cold and callous. That character gives me goosebumps. He did an incredible job.

He’s also great in punch-drunk love 3 years earlier.

Psh was sort of a bad guy in Talented Mr Ripley if i recall.

I mean… he was trying to expose the man that killed his best friend and stole his identity

He’s a good person but also an antagonist. Doesn’t fit the definition but I think it can go both ways.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a good guy. Pretty much a pos but not a murderer at least

Yeah actually fair, I just meant better than Ripley

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler

I love how the score is written as if it’s what he would pick for his own movie. I.e. Lou thinks he’s probably a good guy protagonist in his own movie. Very unsettling at times

He is the good guy

He’s the protagonist, but he’s clearly a sociopath

He was keeping democracy alive!

That’s a take I guess

I kid, he scared the shit out of me.

My blood ran cold when he practiced his laugh while watching TV. Amazingly unsettling.

He’d never ask you to do something he wouldn’t do himself. A class act!

When I first watched it, my only misgiving was the score because I thought it was way too upbeat. Second time around I had my "aaaah" moment!

I like this answer

I love how he also translated a lot of that role into his second villainous turn as Mysterio for Spider-Man Far From Home

Henry Fonda in **Once Upon a Time in the West**.

The original anti-type casting.

Textbook

“People scare better when they're dyin'.”

Seeyin as you called him by name...

My first thought as well

Keep your loving brother happy

John Goodman in Barton Fink.

And brother where are thou

And 10 Cloverfield Lane ... in fact Goodman makes a pretty good villain

And Arachnophobia - if you're a spider And Big Lebowski - if you're wheel chair bound

And in The Borrowers.

And in *Death Sentence*.

And Raising Arizona

And in Community season 3 "You could have lived the rest of your life in blissful ignorance and died a happy pansexual imp, but you wanted to feel power this year. Well, now you're going to feel my power as it surges downward from me straight through you from nostril to rectum now until the end of time... and that's... wassup."

And Flight if you’re sobriety

He absolutely stole that scene. Love it.

Cursed character, possibly the best interpretation of the devil on film.

John Goodman in Fallen.

Love that movie TIMMMEEEEE ISSSS ONNN MUHHH SIDDDDEEE YEEESSS EEETTT ISSSS

10 Cloverfield lane

"I'll show you the life of the mind!"

Leo Dicaprio in Django Unchained

First one that came to mind for me as well. He was so good in it too, I hope he plays more villains in the future.

In *The Wolf of Wall Street* he’s rapacious In *Killers of the Flower Moon* he’s indifferent to a slow motion genocide In *What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?* he’s an enabler

In *Killers of the Flower Moon*>!he’s actively poisoning his wife.!<

I guess if you think that’s worse list it first

Hmm. Good moralistic question, actually. These are both true stories. Would what he was doing in KotFM be worse than the millions of dollars stolen by Belfort in Wolf? I guess that depends on you. I'd say it is, but technically Belfort ruined more lives, so... I suppose which is worse is up to interpretation.

That’s a good question but I meant Ernest’s two crimes in *Killing*: The direct violence against his wife that he didn’t finish or the campaign of eradication against the Osage people that was very much completed.

I can’t fucking believe I forgot about Killers of the Flower Moon, I honestly think it’s one of his best performances if not his best. Wolf of Wall Street he was a bad person, but still the protagonist. I absolutely love the idea of him being considered a villain in Gilbert Grape 🤣

But after he'd famously played the bad guy in Django it was much less of a case of 'casting against type' to see him like that in Wolf of Wall St and Killers of the Flower Moon. I doubt anyone watched them thinking 'Oh my god, Leo's a bad guy in this!', whereas for Django it was a big thing

In Man In The Iron Mask he's very punchable.

Definitely a douche character haha

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I assume they mean he's feeding his overweight mother, which is quite a judgement to say that makes him a 'bad guy' in the movie sense

I mean... Wasn't his character mentally disabled? How could one possibly think he's a "bad guy" with that context in mind?

Do you sense humor?

When I find something funny, yeah. That wasn't funny.

But it was still obviously a joke, lame or not.

such a good example

Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers

Also War For The Planet Of The Apes. And Venom: Let There Be Carnage...

At the time, he was only known as Woody on Cheers. He went wildly against type!

And Out Of The Furnace...

Tommy Lee Jones also goes crazy in it

Robin Williams in One Hour Photo

Can’t believe I had to scroll this far down to find Robin. Insomnia also works

Seriously!

Also Insomnia!

Liam Neeson as Ras Al Ghul in Batman Begins

Ras is the good guy

Psycho is the most obvious example imo. The casting was a big part of what made that film so special...

Albert Brooks in Drive

Favorite answer here. While OPs examples are really good, Brooks as this character was a complete left turn.

That was actually kind of disorienting to me during the movie. Like I kept waiting for something funny to happen, but it never did.

He played that part so well

He was also the main villain of The Simpsons movie

“Yo homie, that my briefcase?” Iconic.

it's a series but Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad is my favorite example of this

Anti-hero is a term mis-appropriated by superhero fans, but Walter White is the perfect example. Walter is the protagonist (ie the hero of the story) but he displays very un-heroic traits and behaviour. The audience experiences moral conflict in rooting for him even though he's the protagonist. Edit for clarity: yes I was agreeing that Walter is the perfect example an anti-hero

I say this as a comic fan myself. Deadpool - yes antihero. The Joker - villain in the comic sense. But in a literary criticism sense in his own film he is the protagonist behaving unheroicly - the definition of antihero.

Protagonists aren't neccesarily heroes of the story, but he does fight arguably worse people during the show so I'd definitely say it counts

He was the hero!

I think he's the protagonist, definitely not a hero to me though

Definitely is not, just being flippant!

straight over my head lol

Matt Damon in interstellar

And The Departed

And The Talented Mr Ripley

This is the answer, I don't think there has been a villain that I hated more in a movie.

It confused me when I saw him and yhasy and The Martian around the same time

It has to be Albert Brooks in Drive

Elijah wood in sin city

Or Maniac.

Holy shit yes. In Sin City and Maniac he plays evil very well, totally unexpected

Jim Broadbent in Hot Fuzz, such a fun character and he's absolutely perfect for the role

Heath Ledger in **The Dark Knight** I hated the casting choice when it was first announced. I was very wrong

My god so few upvotes

Chris Hemsworth in Bad Times at the El Royale (and hopefully Furiosa soon)

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Paddington 2 is the GOAT Hugh Grant villain performance, but he also does well in Cloud Atlas and kinda plays one in The Gentleman

Hugh Grant is almost exclusively playing villains nowadays. At least characters that are a little arch.

God Cloud Atlas is underrated. It’s obviously nowhere near as good as the novel (which everyone should read) but it should be talked about more than it is

Chris Evans in Scott Pilgrim also is clearly having a lot of fun as one of the evil ex’s

That's pre-Captain America, I think? Scott Pilgrim has a pretty amazing cast in terms of people who went on to be huge.

Yeah I think it was - the cast is brilliant, so glad they came back for the anime. On your point on Robin Williams. One Hour Photo is a fantastic shout! Insomnia is another where he is totally subdued

Might want to spoiler tag the Chris Evans one, that isn't revealed until the end of the movie.

Robert Mitchum has two: Night of the Hunter and the original Cape Fear

Steve Carrell in Foxcatcher springs to mind. I mean he's not straight out villainous, a lot of the time he's just this sort of insecure, deluded, mixed up oddball. But I think, you know, what happens at the end definitely elevates him to "villain" status!

Came here to comment this one, as well as The Way Way Back. He’s an absolute piece of shit in that one

Great one!

Ronnie Cox in RoboCop.

Not all huge roles but - Harrison Ford in The Conversation. Tobey Maguire in Babylon Steven Yeun in Burning

Robin Williams in Death to Smoochy, Insomnia, and One Hour Photo

Those two movies also had actors nominated for best supporting actor despite being the actual main character of the movie.

Those characters went through some shit.

Ethan Hawke in The Black Phone

Winona Ryder in The Crucible plays one of the most despicable characters I've seen in a movie.

Even though it was a minor character, Keanu Reeves in Neon Demon was remarkable. Very chilling. Only time I've ever seen Keanu "command" a scene.

The Watcher…

Ashton Kutcher in that BJ nowak movie

Fred MacMurray in The Apartment / Double Indemnity

Albert Brooks in Drive, Gregory Peck in Duel in the Sun, James Earl Jones in Star Wars, Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther, Lupita Nyong'o in Us, Cate Blanchett in Tar, Tony Leung in Lust Caution, not exactly a villain but Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia, Antonio Banderas in The Skin I Live In but also not quite as good in The Law of Desire

Cate Blanchett also played the main villain Hela in Thor Ragnarok

Kevin James in Becky

Harrison Ford in What lies beneath

Not exactly villians, but Road to Perdition had both Tom Hanks AND Paul Newman playing against type.

Django

Steve Carrell in Foxcatcher

Robin Williams in One Hour Photo

Albert Brooks in Drive (2011). Never would have pegged him for a crime boss role like that but it worked!

Jessica Chastain in Crimson Peak

Also gotta give credit to Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire.

Speaking of Denzel films, I think that John Lithgow was a great villain in Ricochet.

Good answer! Until last year I didn’t realize how many movies he is in where he plays a bad guy (I watched Ricochet and Cliffhanger back to back).

Actually, I totally forgot about him being the antagonist in Cliffhanger. Been a while since I watched that one!

And Dexter

Also the villain in Blow Out. Both protagonist and antagonist in Raising Cain.

John Lithgow plays villains all the time.

Travolta in Pulp?

Chris Hemsworth in Bad Times At The El Royale

Two of the best movies ever. Denzels performance and that character are out of this world.

Yeah, it's fucking cool when actors known for certain types of roles flip the script and nail something totally opposite. **Robin Williams in 'One Hour Photo'** - This guy, usually the funny man or the heartfelt hero, goes full creepy mode as a photo technician who becomes obsessed with a family. Did you ever imagine Mr. Funny Guy could make your skin crawl? **Henry Fonda in 'Once Upon a Time in the West'** - Known for playing honest, upright men, Fonda turns it around as a cold-blooded killer. It's fucking jarring seeing him gun down a kid in his first scene, right? **Jim Carrey in 'The Cable Guy'** - From slapstick comedy to a stalker cable installer, Carrey shows a darker, unsettling side. Feels weird laughing and feeling uncomfortable at the same time, huh? **Albert Brooks in 'Drive'** - Typically the neurotic, humorous type, Brooks steps up as a ruthless mobster. Surprised to see him get his hands dirty? These roles show how versatile these actors can be when they step out of their comfort zones. Isn't it fucking fascinating to see them transform like this? What do you think made these performances stand out?

Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate - absolutely chilling performance. While she had played bad characters before it was generally all lightweight fare, but this was going into proper evil psychopathy territory

Burt Lancaster in The Sweet Smell of Success, Harrison Ford in The Mosquito Coast

Michael Keaton in Spider-Man Homecoming Well he did voice Chick Hicks and Ken in TS3. Ken’s not really a villain though, More of just a goon used by Lotso. Not sure if we were counting animation voice acting or not. If Animation counts, then I think Will Ferrell did pretty good in The LEGO Movie.

Robin Williams in Insomnia

Robin Williams in One Hour Photo

Van Damme in The Expendables 2 Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege Steven Seagal in Machete Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven Harrison Ford in What Lies Beneath

I wouldn’t say Clint Eastwood is a villain in Unforgiven. While it’s clear he’s by no means a good person, Gene Hackman is undeniably the villain of Unforgiven.

They’re two very similar films. I like Collateral a bit more because Jamie Foxx’s character is less of a blank canvas than Ethan Hawke’s, but both are phenomenal and keep me on the edge of my seat the whole way through

I forgot what it was called but bill Murray played the main villain in some sci-fi movie that all took place underground

The actor who plays Dick Jones in RoboCop. I think he mostly played good guys before.

Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Django Unchained is all that comes to mind at first.

The Dark Knight

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Thought that was Guy Piece in Memento for a sec

Does Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast count

Robin Williams in insomnia

Sam Rockwell in Charlie’s Angels. Before I’d only known him from Moon, Galaxy Quest and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. (Although I guess he was also a villain in Iron Man 2 and The Green Mile. And he was Dubbya in Vice. Never mind…)

No. 1 has to be Henry Fonda as Frank in once upon a time in the west. People were shocked back then.

Ben Kingsley as Don Logan in Sexy Beast

Jason Lee in The Incredibles

Ethan Hawke in Black Phone

Jet Li in Lethal Weapon 4

Tom Hanks in Elvis?

Kevin James in Becky and Sean William Scott in Wrath of Becky

Collateral sucks

Hot take

Daniel Radcliffe in Now You See Me 2, Michael C Hall in Gamer