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I get cast as a lot of sympathetic characters. I'd like to play someone really unpleasant.

There's a bizarre insistence on how a story should be. 'The protagonist must be sympathetic!' they say. Whatever that means. I never engage in that discussion. I never use that word, 'sympathetic.' I just know 'interesting.'

I don't like the idea the viewer can kind of sit there and go, 'Make me like this person.' People aren't inherently sympathetic.

I don't care about sympathy. I care about playing a character who's understandable and clear.

I don't think I like characters who are afraid and ashamed of who they are.

Although I'm not particularly troubled myself, I do have a lot of empathy for troubled characters.

You don't need to like your protagonists.

To read a character I'm not sympathizing with is generally quite a good, attractive proposition because I've got somewhere to go, I've got work to do, to try to understand why they behave like they behave, to relate entirely and understand them and to be completely emotionally connected. That is much more fun 99 percent of the time.

I like characters who are contradictory.