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Patrick Stewart was an icon of the stage and screen. He passed away at the age of 86 recently, and though it's hard to say someone who lived a good, long life is gone too soon, he's one of those people who was never going to be here long enough. While he'll forever be known as Jean-Luc Picard from "Star Trek" and Charles Xavier from "X-Men," he once played one of the best movie villains in recent memory. As hard as that may be to believe for those who haven't seen the movie in question, it's no less true.
That movie is 2015's "Green Room." Helmed by Jeremy Saulnier, before the director's action thriller "Rebel Ridge" with a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes topped Netflix's charts, it's a real punch-in-the-gut, no-holds-barred, slow burn thriller with Stewart at the center of it all as the head honcho of a band of neo-Nazis. It may be incredibly difficult for certain people to even imagine the actor behind Professor X doing such a thing, but boy did he do it. And he didn't hold back one bit.
"He's known popularly as a couple of these characters in science fiction franchises. He was excited about doing something different," Saulnier told /Film in an interview for "Green Room" in 2016, noting that Stewart wanted to get away from the characters he was known best as. Speaking further, the director explained that he didn't choose Stewart. Rather, Stewart chose this movie:
"The thing about someone like Patrick Stewart is...when you're doing an independent, punk rock genre flick, Patrick Stewart has to choose you. [Laughs.] He got involved because he was looking for something fun, something adventurous, to shake things up a bit."
Patrick Stewart disappears in Green Room
A24
Shake things up he did, indeed. "Green Room" sees Patrick Stewart and some skinheads face off with a punk band (including the late Anton Yelchin) who wind up in a terrible situation. The down-on-their-luck group is simply trying to get enough money to make it home in the midst of a failed tour when they get the chance for a solid payday. The catch? They have to play at a seedy club for some seedy sorts. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
While I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, something goes terribly wrong after the show, and the band winds up trapped in the green room, with a bunch of skinheads outside hoping they can cover some tracks and avoid trouble. Stewart plays Darcy, the leader of these neo-Nazis, and when he finally makes his entrance into the movie, he makes one hell of an impression.
The man we all know as Patrick Stewart totally disappears behind the character that is Darcy. Yes, he resembles Stewart physically, but this is a cold, unfeeling, humorless, awful person who would rather see a whole group of (relatively) innocent musicians die than see his skinhead cohorts on the wrong side of the law. The things he commands his loyal followers to do in an attempt to clean up this mess are unforgivable. The feelingless manner in which he executes these plans is straight-up chilling.
In the way that Stewart was the heart of David Lynch's "Dune," he was the evil core of Jeremy Saulnier's "Green Room." Even if Darcy isn't the one personally getting his hands dirty, the things he's sanctioning with no regard for the people on the other side of these violent acts are more than unforgivable. They're downright vile.
Green Room lets Patrick Stewart be truly despicable
A24
It takes a certain level of confidence as an actor to be so despicable. Darcy is the kind of role that might scare a lesser actor for fear that they might be associated in real life with the character. Not Patrick Stewart. He seemed to relish the opportunity to play someone so plainly contemptible. This is a killer with beliefs that are indefensible, doing indefensible things without a second thought.
It's not as hard, in some ways, to be a villain like Darth Vader who is so far removed from reality. Yes, he's one of the best movie villains of all time, but it's easy to like a villain like that. The same goes for Hans Gruber in "Die Hard," who is the kind of baddie we love to hate. What makes Stewart's turn as Darcy in "Green Room" so remarkable is that he's very human, one with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It's a performance worth marveling at, yet a character that makes the viewer sick with hatred. He's reprehensible.
"Green Room" was, unfortunately, a flop from A24 that deserved better. It didn't get the audience it deserved at the time of its release, but it has become something of a cult favorite in the years since. That has more than a little to do with Stewart's Oscar-worthy performance as this movie's legendarily great villain. Not a likable one, but the relatively rare, purely evil sort that makes one question what humans are capable of.
To take it one step further? In a career filled with outstanding roles, this may well be one of Stewart's very best moments. Not as a hero, but as a straight-up villain. A scary f***ing villain.
