"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Actors

[bowfinger]

Couple of weeks back, I was watching the Grand Budapest Hotel for the 4th or 5th time, I was really enjoying Fiennes’ acting, and it occurred to me that some actors generally play the good guy/protagonist, or the villain/antagonist. But Fiennes is a true exception, especially in the villain department. He is a great actor without a doubt, but I’m not talking about being a great actor, he can easily swing to the either side of the force (if we are to borrow a Star Wars term), and he can manage to really get under your skin, and I believe he does this without actually repeating himself. You know, his psycho in Schindler’s List is quite different from his psycho in Red Dragon. (Heck, he can easily be completely forgettable if he wants to, but then again, Hurt Locker itself was completely forgettable, I take that back).

My other favorite actor that can do the same is Willem Dafoe. With so few lines, I thought he was superb in the Grand Budapest, but I think his best villain was in Wild At Heart, do you remember that paralyzing verbal rape?

Now, some of you may not consider these two as great as DDL, Bob De Niro, or Al Pacino, but in the sense that I try to describe above, I think Fiennes and Dafoe can play a wider range of roles. This may be due to the fact that villains can be a little more two dimensional, so, arguably, great acting may not be required to play these roles, but I would disagree with that. De Niro still scares me when I watch Cape Fear even today, I hate Pacino’s guts in Angels in America, DDL is a true son-of-a-bitch in TWBB, but I guess, what I am trying to say is, they haven’t done much else in this department. And I really wish they did. (I was rooting for Pacino in Devil’s Advocate, and Ocean’s 13 and Gaylord Focker’s nightmare father-in-law doesn’t count in my book, and I think the whole Gangs of NY is kind of lame).

So my question is, who is your fav Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde actor/actress, and who would you want to see on the “other side” for a change, or more?

Like, we know he can go quite berserk, but do you think Pitt can ever pull of a good bad guy like DiCaprio just did in Django?

[nauru]

Forest Whitaker is one of the most versatile actors I've come across. He goes from hero cop in Phone Booth, to reluctant rule-follower in Repo Men, to greedy burglar in Panic Room, to genocidal dictator in The Last King of Scotland. Not to mention dozens of other roles, that never seem to repeat themselves.

[bowfinger]

I agree with you on the extensive scope of things Whitaker can take on, he is utterly talented. But as if this is also his flaw, I think he makes some surprising choices on which roles to accept, and he ends up in weird movies, which makes me think he'll be doing B movies for the rest of his life. And then, you see him again in a mainstream blockbusters. I wish he was more consistent in that sense.

Another actor of whom I cannot get enough of is Gary Oldman, especially when he plays the villain. I thought he did an excellent voice acting job in Kung Fu Panda 2, and I was really looking forward to seeing him as the antagonist in the Planet of the Apes reboot sequel, but I just realized that there is a greater villain.

[spoiler]Ayps... fall-oh... Co-bah... nahw...[/spoiler]

[TheDenizen]

Brad Pitt made a pretty good psycho in Kalifornia. But he's no DiCaprio in Django.