Movie villains who are gorgeous in real life

There's been a fair few good looking bad guys in Hollywood over the years, but traditionally, the antagonist is ugly as sin. It's been that way since the silent film era when the rat-like Nosferatu (the father of all movie vampires since) stalked the halls of his castle. "He has a bald head, pointy ears, elongated hands with clawlike nails and two conspicuous fangs where his front teeth should be," The New York Times said of F. W. Murnau's classic monster. "This guy is no cutie face." Of course, you expect some creepy characters when you watch a horror movie, but the ugly villain trope actually exists across every genre.

Captain Phasma in The Force Awakens

When she won the part of Captain Phasma in 2015's Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Gwendoline Christie made history as the first on-screen female Star Wars villain. Not that anybody would have known that had Phasma (who was conceived as a male character) kept her mouth shut — she never takes off her chrome helmet once during the movie. "I was actually lucky enough to be given a Couture suit, so the armor was made to fit my dimensions exactly," she told Moms 'N Charge. "I just loved that we maintained the practicality of what she was wearing... You put this armor on, and you feel rigid and uncompromising."

Movie villains who are gorgeous in real life

BY PHIL ARCHBOLD/NOV. 6, 2018 2:38 PM EDT/UPDATED: AUG. 23, 2019 11:27 AM EDT
There's been a fair few good looking bad guys in Hollywood over the years, but traditionally, the antagonist is ugly as sin. It's been that way since the silent film era when the rat-like Nosferatu (the father of all movie vampires since) stalked the halls of his castle. "He has a bald head, pointy ears, elongated hands with clawlike nails and two conspicuous fangs where his front teeth should be," The New York Times said of F. W. Murnau's classic monster. "This guy is no cutie face." Of course, you expect some creepy characters when you watch a horror movie, but the ugly villain trope actually exists across every genre.


Disney helped to perpetuate this with its animated features and continues to do so today with its live-action output, as you're about to find out. Does this mean that the Mouse House needs to change its ways? Not according to an actual study by Georgia State University, which suggests that real criminals are usually unattractive people, a fact that pretty much lets the big studios off the hook. They can make their villains as aesthetically unpleasing or as downright frightening as they choose, and some of them have really pushed the boat out in recent years. But what about the actors beneath the makeup and prosthetics?

The following movie villains might be designed to disgust, but they're all gorgeous in real life.


Captain Phasma in The Force Awakens
Getty/Disney
When she won the part of Captain Phasma in 2015's Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Gwendoline Christie made history as the first on-screen female Star Wars villain. Not that anybody would have known that had Phasma (who was conceived as a male character) kept her mouth shut — she never takes off her chrome helmet once during the movie. "I was actually lucky enough to be given a Couture suit, so the armor was made to fit my dimensions exactly," she told Moms 'N Charge. "I just loved that we maintained the practicality of what she was wearing... You put this armor on, and you feel rigid and uncompromising."


Phasma proved a hit with notoriously hard-to-please Star Wars fans, who reacted negatively when Rian Johnson failed to utilize her properly in his follow up, 2017's Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. Speaking to Business Insider, the director said that he was "bummed" about the character's limited screen time, too. "The truth of it is there wasn't room for her in this movie," he said. "She's so badass, I wish it was her story. But it isn't. Maybe there will be one eventually at some point."

The 6'3” actress and model rose to fame playing Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones, flying the flag for taller women. "Occasionally I get messages from women saying that I've brought them some joy, and that's unbelievably thrilling," Christie told Rolling Stone.


The Red Queen in Alice and Wonderland


collaborator Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter is more than just crazy wigs and gothic makeup. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her star turn in 1997's The Wings of the Dove and was recognized in the Best Supporting Actress category for her work opposite Colin Firth in The King's Speech. The wildly popular King George VI biopic hit cinemas in 2010, the same year as Burton's hugely successful (it made over a billion dollars worldwide) take on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.


Aileen Wuornos in Monster

South African beauty Charlize Theron is known for playing characters that are both tough and sexy at the same time, but she only had to bring one of those traits to her breakthrough role. You could certainly describe real life serial killer Aileen Wuornos as tough, but she most definitely wasn't sexy in the traditional sense. According to History.com, Wuornos murdered seven men over a five month killing spree that began in late 1989. In 2002, she was executed in Florida, where she'd committed the murders.

Brian Prince in The Predator


Described by Den of Geek as "an unfeasibly tall man," Brian Prince won the part of the titular alien in 2018's The Predator not only because he's huge, but because he's also a parkour expert. He'd previously done stunt work for The Walking Dead, and has since worked on Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther since then, but Shane Black's reboot of John McTiernan's '80s classic is without a doubt his biggest gig to date — and it came out of nowhere. 

Rita Repulsa in Power Rangers

Undoubtedly one of the most iconic kids TV villains of all time, the Rita Repulsa from the 2017 reboot of Power Rangers was very different from the wacky, comical hat-wearing baddy we came to know in the '90s. The Repulsa from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (which was cut together using footage from Japanese counterpart, Super Sentai) wore a baggy brown robe that covered her entire body, but the version of the character played by Elizabeth Banks was sexed up in true Hollywood fashion.

Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter

Ralph Fiennes almost turned down the role of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, only agreeing after his sister convinced him it was worth his while. The Brit's performance is perhaps one of the most underrated villainous turns in Hollywood history. Everything about his take on He Who Must Not Be Named was pitch perfect, from his callous killings of anyone pro-muggle to his iconic laugh. "The endlessly versatile Ralph Fiennes gives an astonishing, multi-nuanced performance as the Dark Lord, one that (with some justice) should earn him a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination," veteran film critic Emanuel Levy said after watching the final installment in the long-running franchise.

Nero in Star Trek



Australian actor Eric Bana is probably best known for starring as Bruce Banner in Ang Lee's botched attempt at bringing the Hulk to the big screen, but he's been working steadily in Hollywood ever since, often going unnoticed. Bana followed 2003's Hulk with appearances in the historical epic Troy and Steven Spielberg's Munich. He also portrayed infamous wife killer King Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl. But Bana's become a lot less prominent since, and his retreat from the A-list seems to have begun with 2009's Star Trek.
Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace

George Lucas' prequel trilogy has always been divisive, but did give us one of the most memorable Star Wars villains: Darth Maul. Introduced in1999's Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Maul dispatches Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) in a high-flying, two-on-one lightsaber battle. Park (just 22 at the time) trained for 15-hours a day to get his martial arts up to scratch for the role, but it wasn't until he had the full makeup on that he felt truly ready.

Azog the Defiler in the Hobbit trilogy

It didn't capture the imagination in the same way that The Lord of the Rings films did, but for Kiwi actor Manu Bennett, Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy changed everything. "Being from New Zealand and being chosen by Peter Jackson to play Azog − which is a pivotal bad guy — he really honored me to get a role like that and make a break as a New Zealand actor," Bennett told HNGN. The murderous Orc hounds the titular hobbit Bilbo Baggins and the band of dwarves with whom he travels, but Bennett never actually got to act with any of them.