A Quote by John Rhys-Davies

Actors endow the villain in fiction with a warmth and quality that makes them memorable. I think we like fictional villains because they're the Mr. Hyde of our own dreams. I've met a few real villains in my time, and they weren't the least bit sympathetic.

John Rhys-Davies

Quote Topics

Dreams Actors Because Bit Few Fiction Fictional Hyde Least Like Makes Memorable Met My Time Our Own Quality Real Sympathetic Them Think Time Villain Villains Warmth

Quote Author

John Rhys-Davies
Welsh - Actor
Born: May 5, 1944

The thing about villains is that villains always have their own logic, and they don't necessarily see themselves as villains. Richelieu is not a villain, in his own mind. He's doing what he needs to do.

Adrian Hodges

Superman, when he's fighting you, isn't like Batman. He also isn't like Spider-man, who will bully you and make fun of his villains. Why do you think Spider-man's villains all hate him so much? Maybe because as he breaks their bones he's mocking them! Batman's villains are all insane! Superman, when he goes after someone, is essentially not trying to beat them. He's trying to save them from themselves.

Max Landis

You need to try to find a way to humanize your villains. Genuine villains, in real life, still have mothers and daughters and sisters, and they fall in love. They don't walk around with a big sign saying, "Bad guy," on their head. They think they're good guys. If you can play that, I think it makes it more interesting.

Mark Strong

The DC Universe has the best villains in fiction, right? I don't think there's any group of villains collectively or anywhere else that come close to DC's. Joker, Cat Woman, Lex Luthor, are all staples. A lot of the comic book icons are fiction icons.

Geoff Johns

Villains often more the story along while the heros react to the villains, so the villain becomes the engine of the story.

Michael Scott

So much in TV today, you don't get to feel empathetic for the villain. The villains are the villains and the heroes are the heroes. It's very black and white.

Stella Maeve

Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do.

Ian Mckellen

In reality, there are very few villains who view themselves as villains. They just have a certain agenda at a certain time.

Michael Jai White

The other thing is we have an incredible villain. And we worked very hard to have villains that are connected to the hero. They have an effect, an emotional effect. They never become out-of-this-world, crazy villains.

Avi Arad

This I realized very late, that villain remains villain and are never able to become artists. We are never counted as actors and always addressed as villains.

Mukesh Rishi

Villains are fun. I think the important thing in playing them is that they don't see themselves as villains. It lets you be a little more expansive.

Rhys Ifans

We, at one point, had such great villains with shades of grey and a compelling story around them. But Bollywood did see a decline when villains were nothing but aimless goons who had no real purpose to them.

Mukesh Rishi

I have been thinking a lot about what we see in villains, how we relate to villains, and what it is about certain villains that we actually empathize with. Like Macbeth. We're not supposed to like a guy who kills the king and takes over, but there's something about him we're really fascinated by.

Finn Wittrock

I don't expect Christians to see God as a metaphor, but that's what he is. Perhaps it might be clearer to call him a character in fiction, and a very interesting one too: one of the greatest and most complex villains of all - savage, petty, boastful and jealous, and yet capable of moments of tenderness and extremes of arbitrary affection - for David, for example. But he's not real, any more than Hamlet or Mr Pickwick are real. They are real in the context of their stories, but you won't find them in the phone book.

Philip Pullman

Playing villains is very liberating because unlike the leading man, nothing is expected of you. Leading men have to look good, they have to behave in a certain way, they have to fulfill an audience's expectations. But as a bad guy, you have free license to take the audience by surprise. And that's what audiences want - they want unpredictability from their villains. The villain's job is to subvert it.