Villains I love to Hate

Once upon a time, I read this article about Princess Punzalan who, at that time, was enjoying a second wind thanks to her performance as the villain Selena in “Mula sa Puso.”

She recounted that someone at the mall tried to pull her hair because of all the treachery and evil she’s been doing to Claudine Barreto’s character in the soap. That’s when she realized that her acting was so effective, she was no longer an actress but a real life villain.

This is my personal gauge of how effective a villain is: when I find myself wanting to stand up and charge to the screen to inflict bodily harm on the movie’s baddie – then I know the actor did really, really well.

In the hundreds of films I’ve seen, a few actors have made me want to do just that. In honor of them, let me write down the top 5 villains that I love to hate.


1. Gary Sinise in “Ransom.” – Pure, scheming, cruelty. That was the embodiment of his character in that film. It didn’t help that he was the FBI agent assigned to the case, then turned out to be the mastermind of the entire kidnapping. Sick as it may sound, it gave me so much joy seeing him hurt in that film. When his crime partner/girlfriend Lily Taylor died in the shootout scene, I let out a chuckle because I knew that killed a part of him, too. And when he was shot in the end, my mind was screaming: “DIE, BASTARD, DIE!”


2. Kirsten Dunst/Samantha Mathis in “Little Women.” – Okay, so technically, they weren’t villains in the film. But their character – Amy – tormented Jo so much that I thought they should be classified as one. They were scheming and manipulative, only wanting what’s good for them. When Kirsten threw Winona’s manuscript into the fire, I wanted to jump into the screen and whack the living daylights out of her. When Samantha showed up in the March household with Teddy as her fiancé, it took me an amount of self-control to keep myself from shouting: “BITCH! YOU STOLE TEDDY FROM JO! BITCH!”


3. Cameron Diaz in “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” – She ended up with Julia Roberts’ guy. She made Julia Roberts unhappy. Anyone in his or her right mind would definitely say that THAT is the ultimate villainy of them all. No one should ever make Julia Roberts sad. NO ONE! And even if Cameron is as cute as a button and hot as hell, she’s a villain because of what she did.


4. The Shopkeeper in “Pretty Woman.” – Related to reason number 3. When she told Julia Roberts off and said: “I’m sorry, but we don’t sell clothes for your kind here,” and gave her the raised eyebrow-sneer-shrug combo, she automatically became an evil witch in my eyes. I kept on telling myself, “I wish I owned that Rodeo Drive shop so I could have fired her snooty ass right then and there.” That’s why when Julia came back and delivered her line: “You earn on commission, right? Big mistake – HUGE!” I could almost hear a chorus of angels singing “Hallelujah” in the background.


5. Edward Norton in “Primal Fear.” – The whole time you thought he was the victim. The whole time you thought that there was injustice done to him. Then right before the movie ends, he turns out to be the cold-blooded killer that Laura Linney saw him to be. When the credits started to roll, I sat there in disbelief, and I wanted the projectionist to rewind the movie so I could jump in the screen and beat Edward Norton silly.

Recalling all these villainous moments is turning out to be more fun than I expected. I should do this more often.