"Every actor will tell you it's so much more fun to play the bad guy because usually those characters are more complex and more broad and more interesting, and have more sides to them"
About this Quote
There is a quiet confession tucked into Vartan's industry-commonplace: the heroes are often the least free people on screen. When he says it’s “more fun” to play the bad guy, he’s not praising evil so much as pointing at a structural problem in mainstream storytelling. Protagonists, especially in studio and network fare, are built to be legible and likable. They carry the audience’s identification, the brand’s risk management, the notes from executives who fear a “problematic” lead. Villains, by contrast, get to be messy.
Vartan’s phrasing also reveals how actors think about craft. “Broad” and “more sides” aren’t just adjectives; they’re permission slips. A bad guy can swing tones, contradict himself, weaponize charm, commit to volatility. He can be funny in one beat and terrifying in the next without the script feeling like it broke its contract with the viewer. That elasticity gives performers more playable choices: motive, mask, slip, escalation. Complexity here is less moral nuance than behavioral range.
The subtext is a critique of how morality is used as a proxy for depth. We tell ourselves the villain is “interesting” because he’s darker, but often it’s because the writing lets him want things with embarrassing intensity. Even “evil” comes with specificity: obsession, envy, wounded pride, ideology. Meanwhile the “good guy” is stuck being a function: reacting, rescuing, staying steady.
Context matters: Vartan is a working actor shaped by TV’s long-run demands, where character engines matter. In that machine, the antagonist isn’t just a person; he’s the story’s pressure system. Actors, like audiences, tend to follow the pressure.
Vartan’s phrasing also reveals how actors think about craft. “Broad” and “more sides” aren’t just adjectives; they’re permission slips. A bad guy can swing tones, contradict himself, weaponize charm, commit to volatility. He can be funny in one beat and terrifying in the next without the script feeling like it broke its contract with the viewer. That elasticity gives performers more playable choices: motive, mask, slip, escalation. Complexity here is less moral nuance than behavioral range.
The subtext is a critique of how morality is used as a proxy for depth. We tell ourselves the villain is “interesting” because he’s darker, but often it’s because the writing lets him want things with embarrassing intensity. Even “evil” comes with specificity: obsession, envy, wounded pride, ideology. Meanwhile the “good guy” is stuck being a function: reacting, rescuing, staying steady.
Context matters: Vartan is a working actor shaped by TV’s long-run demands, where character engines matter. In that machine, the antagonist isn’t just a person; he’s the story’s pressure system. Actors, like audiences, tend to follow the pressure.
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| Topic | Movie |
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