11 Safe Good Guy Actors Who Should Have Played More Villains
4. Leo DiCaprio
Went Bad In... Django Unchained Despite the Academy's almost comical refusal to acknowledge the fact, DiCaprio remains one of the greatest actors currently working, and though he has generally played complex heroes (thankfully mostly ignoring the opportunity to simply play bland romantic leads in the wake of Titanic's success) his most recent performance suggests that we might well have so far been robbed of the actor's aptitude for badness. As the depraved Calvin Candie, DiCaprio steals almost every scene he appears in, thanks to a hugely generous script by Quentin Tarantino, and some of the most memorably awful behaviour outside of a genuine exploitation film. He is the sort of villain who worms his way under the audience's collective skin, and sits proudly, fully aware of the perverse and irresistible attraction the audience can't help but feel for him. The best element to the performance is the contradiction in Candie's cool, well-mannered, and perfectly preserved exterior appearance (including his perverse fascination with the French language) and the animal squirming underneath the surface, who occasionally, and provocatively appears to quench a grim thirst at several hugely affecting points in the film. The performance is far more complex than even Tarantino could have foreseen, and the Oscar snub looks increasingly outrageous as months pass and subsequent viewings are enjoyed. More of that please, Mr DiCaprio.
Went Bad In... Django Unchained Despite the Academy's almost comical refusal to acknowledge the fact, DiCaprio remains one of the greatest actors currently working, and though he has generally played complex heroes (thankfully mostly ignoring the opportunity to simply play bland romantic leads in the wake of Titanic's success) his most recent performance suggests that we might well have so far been robbed of the actor's aptitude for badness. As the depraved Calvin Candie, DiCaprio steals almost every scene he appears in, thanks to a hugely generous script by Quentin Tarantino, and some of the most memorably awful behaviour outside of a genuine exploitation film. He is the sort of villain who worms his way under the audience's collective skin, and sits proudly, fully aware of the perverse and irresistible attraction the audience can't help but feel for him. The best element to the performance is the contradiction in Candie's cool, well-mannered, and perfectly preserved exterior appearance (including his perverse fascination with the French language) and the animal squirming underneath the surface, who occasionally, and provocatively appears to quench a grim thirst at several hugely affecting points in the film. The performance is far more complex than even Tarantino could have foreseen, and the Oscar snub looks increasingly outrageous as months pass and subsequent viewings are enjoyed. More of that please, Mr DiCaprio.