If you were an actor or actress of some note, would you take a role if your character was a murderer/rapist or worse?

[Bricealan]

I pose the question for good reason, in that some performers, more often men, take roles that cast them as a very bad/evil person, who does some unspeakable crimes, that, to me, gives them a bad 'screen image' '

Clint Eastwood cast an actor, (can't recall his name) in one of his Dirty Harry films, in which the character, was terrorizing San Francisco, when he killed a priest in a church, shot and killed a young black kid at the beach, and eventually hijacked a bus full of kids in an attempt to extort money from the city.

The end result when the film was released was, that Eastwood would NOT CAST that actor an another film because he WAS TOO GOOD IN THAT ROLE, and the role he played was so effectively played as the evil criminal, it gave him a very bad 'screen image', and Eastwood would not cast him again. I thought that was appalling!!

Point being: Can you be so good with a role that you ruin your 'screen image" and nobody will touch you again for another part, or at the very least, the public has a bad image of you as a performer?

Russell Crowe played an absolutely sterling role, in my opinion in GLADIATOR, and I often hoped the real life Russell Crowe, was just that kind of man. Later he played some really dirt bag roles, which made me wonder about his true character and what he wanted his public image to be.

I, for one, could never play a role that had me as the murderer/rapist'sadist etc. I got to play a small training video in the Sheriffs Academy, where I was the bad guy that stole from his company and got fired and refused to leave the premises until he got paid. Playing the bad guy is easy to play for most of us.

How do you feel?

I'm with you on this one and my public/screen image is too important for me to play a scummy character

I would not care about the role if it paid enough money, after all, I can clean up my screen image the next time around.

I think you are wrong on this one. The viewing public understands it is just a film, and the actor is just playing the role, and it does not effect how I feel about him/her as a person in real life.

[JustinTheGreat]

I think so. There’s plenty of actors who do nothing but evil roles and they’re still respected in the industry. For example Evan Peters. He’s always playing murderers. He plays a school shooter who raped someone (American horror story season 1), Jeffrey Dahmer, etc. I mean he did get some shit for playing Dahmer but that was because the show was made without consent from the families so people thought it was in bad taste.
I think most people understand that it’s just acting and they shouldn’t be held accountable for a role.
I’d be more concerned about my mental health playing a role like that. I’ve seen actors talk about how certain roles really fucked with them emotionally

[Bricealan]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply... I can only imagine the after effects of playing a shit character also and how that might affect you later.