Casey Chong with seven actors who took on disturbing predator roles…
Playing a predatory character, particularly one that highlights sexual misconduct, poses a challenge for any actor. Among the prime examples is Stanley Tucci, whose performance (he vows not to play again) as a terrifying child predator and serial killer in the otherwise tonally inconsistent The Lovely Bones garnered recognition, even earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Coinciding with the release of Primetime, which stars Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator Host chirs Hansen [read our review here], here are seven actors who took on disturbing predator roles…
Patrick Wilson as Jeff Kohlver in Hard Candy (2005)
David Slade’s feature-length directorial debut remains his most accomplished movie to date, even bringing out the best in Patrick Wilson and Elliot Page (credited as Ellen Page at the time) in this riveting confined-space psychological thriller. Set predominantly in a house, where photographer Jeff (Wilson) brings 14-year-old Hayley Stark (Page) home after they met at a coffeehouse, Slade and screenwriter Brian Nelson flip the script by reversing the usual predator-and-prey expectations.
Jeff is a serial child predator responsible for manipulating and photographing underage girls – an allegation that he repeatedly denies throughout the movie, even though Hayley insists he’s the one. Wilson brings subtlety to his character that avoids the clear-cut antagonist route. Instead, his chameleon-like role imbues a mild-mannered façade with a soft-spoken charm at first, before the subsequent captivity turns him into a persistently defensive person, whose moral ambiguity makes us wonder if he’s the child predator that Hayley has been targeting or being mistaken as one.
Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert in Lolita (1997)
Unlike Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 version, which downplays James Mason’s Humbert Humbert’s predatory obsession towards the titular underage character due to the strict Hays Code, Jeremy Irons’s portrayal is considerably faithful to Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel of the same name. Under the direction of Adrian Lyne, who is no stranger to handling thorny sexual subject matter seen in Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal, Irons delivers a subtly great performance.
The latter brilliantly balances Humbert’s highly articulate, gentleman-like exterior with the sexually needy desperation of a man who can’t stop thinking of the 14-year-old Dolores “Lolita” Haze, played by then-relative newcomer Dominique Swain in her most daring performance. Irons also manages to capture Humbert’s manipulation, rationalization, and even self-pity through his recurring poetic voiceover, highlighting the character’s warped perspective in the movie.
Kevin Bacon as Walter in The Woodsman (2004)
Kevin Bacon’s career-best performance in Nicole Kassell’s feature-length directorial debut was infamously robbed of an Oscar nomination in the Best Actor category, despite garnering several accolades from other film awards. His role as a former child molester, who served a 12-year imprisonment, trying to readapt into society, is masterfully played with nuance. He doesn’t succumb to a melodramatic or sentimental acting style to earn audience sympathy, but rather delves into the emotional complexity of how a character like him can cope with the aftermath of his dark past.
He plays the role with the kind of quiet, stripped-down affection that is a far cry from what we usually see in his showy and charismatic acting energy. Bacon’s highlight in The Woodsman comes from the scenes where Walter forms an emotional bond with a young girl named Robin (Hannah Pilkes, who steals the show in her film acting debut).
Chris Sarandon as Gordon Stuart in Lipstick (1976)
Most people would remember Chris Sarandon in his iconic vampire role as Jerry Dandrige in Fright Night, but he is equally worth mentioning for one of his earlier performances in Lipstick. His deceptively charming portrayal as Gordon Stuart, a music teacher and composer, who ends up assaulting a fashion model (supermodel Margaux Hemingway, in her bold film debut), is played with the kind of vile personality that shows no remorse for what he has done.
Gordon is also an expert in manipulation, going as far as exploiting the legal system when he is arrested by using calculated, gaslighting-style methods to twist the facts, resulting in an exoneration that ends up walking away free from charges. Despite the nature of his character, Sarandon does a good job of avoiding the over-the-top theatrics, but still manages to bring out an unsettling presence with measured restraint.
James Russo as Joe in Extremities (1986)
Nearly twenty years before the shifting power dynamics between the predator and the prey were explored in Hard Candy, Robert M. Young did it earlier in Extremities, transporting William Mastrosimone’s 1982 off-Broadway play of the same name into an uncompromisingly tense chamber drama. Predominantly a two-hander for the bulk of the movie, the story follows Joe (Russo), who invades Marjorie’s (Farrah Fawcett, whose engrossing performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress) home and abuses her.
Russo’s performance is particularly intimidating, an aggressor who shows little mercy in pressuring and dominating Fawcett’s Marjorie in every torturous way possible. Then comes the turning point, especially after Marjorie manages to gain an advantage by spraying him with an insect repellent all over his eyes. This is where Russo’s acting elevates to another level, transforming from a brutal sexual predator to a manipulative victim capable of using gaslighting tactics at one point in the movie.
Martin Sheen as Frank Hallet in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
Martin Sheen’s performance as Frank Hallet may have been given a limited screen time in Nicolas Gessner’s chilling adaptation of Laird Koenig’s 1974 novel The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. And yet, his appearance serves as a high-stakes backbone of the movie each time he shows up on the screen.
His character’s intrusive and entitled personality, with no sense of boundaries, comes across as a creepy offender whenever he attempts to make inappropriate advances on the isolated 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster, in one of her earlier performances, who earned her a Best Actress win in the Saturn Award). Sheen shows excellent restraint in his acting, while he and the young Foster play off each other well, notably during the climactic third act in a psychological cat-and-mouse showdown of manipulation and power dynamics.
Brian Cox as Big John in L.I.E. (2001)
Brian Cox is no stranger to playing a dark and disturbing role, given his prior experience in Manhunter as Dr. Hannibal Lecktor back in 1986. But Michael Cuesta’s indie drama L.I.E. – an acronym for Long Island Expressway — marks another creative challenge for Cox, whose role as a pedophile targeting, grooming, and exploiting the vulnerable teenager, played by Paul Dano as Howie Blitzer, in his breakout performance.
Cox avoids the straightforward antagonist approach, wisely opting for restraint to play his character, who uses the power of quiet persuasion and subtle psychological dominance without relying on assertive force to get what he wants. The movie’s centerpiece lies in Cox’s Big John’s twisted mentor-like relationship as a father figure to Dano’s Howie, making the former character’s underlying predatory nature genuinely disturbing.
Casey Chong
