As an actor, I've given up judgement of evil, as long as it's human evil - we have to see ourselves for what we really are, and we're capable of horrific things.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Evil is important for us to look at, in my opinion, only insofar as it makes us look at our own actions and make us wonder, 'Am I participating in some kind of human evil that I really should stop doing?'
In all of us, there is a struggle between the good and the bad. It makes it more palpable and real to play such people as an actor.
People's character is their behaviour - we're all capable of good and evil.
It's much less interesting as an actor playing someone who's purely good or purely evil.
Now and then, someone would accuse me of being evil - of letting people destroy themselves while I watched, just so I could film them and tape-record them. But I didn't think of myself as evil - just realistic.
Some of the best actors think they're terrible; that's what keeps you connected to a vulnerability that makes it possible for people to empathize with you.
You know, I think a lot of times what happens when we as actors know we're playing a bad guy is we get into bad guy mode. You know what, man? In real life, bad people do good things too and good people do bad things. So you don't necessarily have to be the stereotypical bad guy to still do bad things.
I do not believe in the concept of good and evil in my personal life, in the real world. I just don't believe it. I never try to judge.
How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!
As an actor, if you decide that someone is bad... you can't play bad, because even the worst person doesn't think what they're doing is bad.