2. Peggy Dodd from The Master
Amy Adams' performance as Peggy Dodd is absolutely great. It's a film with a lot of different levels and interpretations, so her character fits in just as well as the protagonists. I see it as being based around how two men, Lancaster Dodd and Freddie Quell, find and help each other through Lancaster's religious movement (called The Cause) and eventually find themselves apart but somehow spiritually connected. What cannot be denied, though, is that Peggy is subtley very terrifying. She's almost never in the centre of the frame when she's seen and is always giving advice to Lancaster, like a bird hovering over him and peck, peck, pecking away to push her opinion through. She claims The Cause doesn't have to explain itself and says the only way to defend ourselves is to attack. She's clearly against Freddie joining their group and she likely has control over Lancaster. All this coming from someone who, in nearly every scene, is just sitting down and talking. She's a serial killer in waiting because she knows how the people around her work and she hates Freddie because he is so damaged and uncontrollable (which is likely what attracts Lancaster to him). She controls the man leading a movement based around subduing the more animalistic aspects of human nature, so what happens when this control is lost? Either monumental lashings out of those same animal-like urges or quitely getting rid of the problem to maintain the integrity of those she does control. It all hinges on how Lancaster's feelings towards Freddie are, a dangerous question that is always being asked throughout the film.