7. Ben Kingsley - Don Logan
If ever a performance defied expectation and all sorts of Einsteinian theories it was petite Ben Kingsley's turn in Sexy Beast. Here, the man renowned for Gandhi, expertly and unnervingly brought to life the psycho that is Don Logan. A wiry man of nervous ticks and twitches, likely to lash out in the blink of an eye. His was a performance of barely concealed rage and hate, a seething mass of anger bubbling under a tetchy surface. Don Logan intimidated everyone he came into contact with - even guys twice his size - and that fear was palpable even to us. Just the mere sight of him storming through the airport with purpose and pressure-cooker vitriol was enough to put us on edge. And who would have thought that anyone could have performed such an atypical performance - let alone Gandhi? Rapid fire dialogue followed by rapid side-to-side eye movement like a lizard, words exploding with more hate than the combined force of the entire KKK. And all perfectly summed up in this diatribe:
"Shut up, c*nt. You louse. You got some f**kin' neck ain't you. Retired? F**k off, you're revolting. Look at your suntan, it's leather, it's like leather man, your skin. We could make a f***** suitcase out of you. Like a crocodile, fat crocodile, fat b****. You look like f**king Idi Amin." Had any one told you Kingsley would play a violent psychopath you would have laughed them out of the room. As it was, you were left cowering behind your sofa. Just like the rest of us.