15 Truly Terrible Villainous Performances From Awesome Actors

There's a major problem in commercial films: often a terrific actor is cast as the villain and completely sleepwalks. Looking at many modern blockbusters, such as the James Bond series and the MCU, this can happen an awful lot and it really shouldn't.

Studios want big names to fill the casts and talented actors getting roped in for underwhelming movies is inevitable, but being cast as a villain, even a terrible one, should be seen as a fine opportunity to let loose and create a memorable character. For example, Leon's Norman Stanfield is not a particularly interesting villain in terms of writing, but thanks to Gary Oldman's wonderfully hammy performance he's completely brilliant. Similarly, Alan Rickman always brought a stunning level of commitment to his villainous roles.

It makes little sense that actors continue to treat bad guy parts as meaningless paycheck roles, since there's a lot of potential to not only give a good performance, but to have lots of fun. Unfortunately, the tradition of talented actors abruptly becoming Razzie-worthy when performing villainous parts in blockbusters continues; these are some of the most painful examples.

Mads Mikkelsen is a fantastic actor who excels in particular at playing villains, so casting him as Doctor Strange's main villain seemed like a goldmine despite Marvel's poor track record with villains. Unfortunately this apparently perfect bit of casting went horribly wrong and Kaecilius was one of the MCU's very worst villains.

An evil wizard with a ponytail and dark eyes, this antagonist spends the film walking around slowly without menace, charisma or backstory of any kind. It is a more or less a nothing role and one of the most thankless parts imaginable, but one would expect an actor of Mikkelsen's caliber to be able to breathe life into such uninspired material.

Curiously, Mikkelsen doesn't try at all and is terrible in the part. Gone is the brooding intensity and dramatic depth that made Le Chiffre and his take on Hannibal Lecter so memorable; instead Mikkelsen takes subtlety to the wrong extreme. He is a complete blank in this part and does nothing look ahead in a vaguely stern manner. Instead of coming across as a legitimate threat, he looks like a parent telling off their kid for being naughty. Just awful.