20 Great Horror Roles Ruined By Terrible Acting
3. Manhunter & Red Dragon - Will Graham
Dr. Will Graham, a gifted FBI profiler who has a history with Hannibal Lecter, has been ruined by bad acting not just once, but twice. Rotten luck, eh?
The Silence of the Lambs wasn't actually the first movie with Hannibal Lecter; that was Michael Mann's Manhunter, an adaptation of Red Dragon, Thomas Harris' first Lecter novel. Though visually stunning, Manhunter is heavily undermined by William Petersen's abysmal performance as Will Graham, which drags the whole thing right down.
As such, the second adaptation - 2002's Red Dragon - was a chance to do the character justice, but no, they dropped the ball again. The ever-inconsistent Edward Norton - who's brilliant in many projects but absolutely terrible in others - gave a wet, annoying performance, one which stunk even more given that he was acting opposite performers such as Anthony Hopkins (playing Lecter for the third and final time) and Ralph Fiennes (playing the movie's main antagonist), both of whom were doing phenomenal work.
Fans would have to wait until Bryan Fuller's amazing and legendary Hannibal TV series for a good version of Will Graham to arrive. Although the character was still a bit annoying, he was played excellently by Hugh Dancy.