The soul of a villain: Stephen Lang on the art of playing bad men

From Avatar: Fire and Ash to Sisu: Road to Revenge, American actor explains how he finds humanity in even the darkest roles

Do the great movie villains have souls? That depends on the actor.

Stephen Lang – who has portrayed more than his share of bad guys – sees it this way: “On the page, a villain is more of a function,” he says, meaning they are there to serve the story. “A soul has not really been written into it. It’s incumbent upon the actor to bring that,” he adds.

It is a philosophy that has guided Lang through decades of playing some of cinema’s coldest, cruelest men. Even now, he resists the idea that he plays villains at all.

“I don’t know how to play 'a villain', per se,” he says. “What I do know is how to go about my work to create a character with a certain degree of authenticity – grounded in history and in truth and in fact. The integrity of the role is what’s important.”

That integrity is what audiences pick up on – that's why his characters ring true.

Lang believes a good villain needs to have a soul, and the actor, rather than the script, makes this possible. Photo: Sony Pictures

“People appreciate that,” he says. “They may not acknowledge it. They may not even be particularly aware of it, but they respond to it.”

Lang’s antagonists certainly endure – from his work in Manhunter, Tombstone and Don't Breathe, through to his defining role as Miles Quaritch in Avatar, a character he has helped turn into one of the franchise’s unlikely emotional centres. Lang refuses to flatten these men into archetypes. He builds them from the inside out, no matter how monstrous they may seem.

The same approach underpins his latest performance in the exceptionally well-reviewed action film Sisu: Road to Revenge, where he plays Igor Draganov, a figure so singularly ruthless he may be the darkest character Lang has ever taken on. What keeps him engaged in such roles, he says, is simple: the craft.

Lang returns as Miles Quaritch in Avatar: Fire and Ash in December. Photo: Disney

“It's all about the process,” he says. “I love the making of movies. I love being on a set. I love working out problems. I love working with directors who have the intelligence and the sensitivity and the confidence to allow me to range about – and to find it.”

On Sisu: Road to Revenge, being released in cinemas across the Middle East today, he found exactly that with director Jalmari Helander. “He was very gracious in allowing me to find who this guy really was,” Lang says. “And so I take great joy in the process.”

That joy now extends to watching the final film – something that wasn’t always true for him. “When I was younger, I watched my movies with my hand over my eye, waiting for me to make the next mistake,” he says. “I think I’ve moved past that, thankfully.”

In the end, it comes back to the question at the heart of his work. Do the great villains have souls? Lang doesn’t hesitate. They have to – because without one, there’s nothing for an audience to recognise, fear or even feel. And for an actor who has spent his career giving life to the worst men imaginable, that inner life is the point.

“That’s the work,” he says. “That’s what makes it real.”

Sisu: Road to Revenge is in cinemas now across the Middle East