TORONTO — On this side of the pond, British thespian Mark Strong is best known for being bad.
In recent years, Strong has brought a mesmerizing menace to villainous roles in Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass, Robin Hood, and Syriana, giving the lanky, dark-haired actor a tough-guy reputation he says actually runs counter to most of his career.
“It’s ironic to me. I mean, I’ve been doing this for 23 years or something and only in the last six have I been the bad guy,” Strong said during a recent visit to Toronto, where he shot Sherlock Holmes and Kick-Ass.
“Before then I was the husband, the father, the lover. I was the good guy.”
This Friday, Strong shows his benevolent side as intergalactic leader Sinestro in the effects-laden Green Lantern.
The character is layered with a heavy-handed arrogance that comic fans know will eventually push the red-skinned alien to the dark side, if allowed to return in a sequel.
Strong says the likelihood that he’ll one day explore Sinestro’s potential for tyrannical fury was made clear to him when he signed on for the sci-fi epic, noting that a franchise is the ultimate goal.
“These days if you do a big movie, the understanding is always that you sign up for the potential of a few of them,” says Strong, who underwent four hours of prosthetics application and makeup every morning.
“That’s a new thing. But in this, specifically, it’s obvious that there is somewhere to go if the appetite for it is big enough. The source material is already there, you don’t have to cobble together a sequel.”
The potential for a big-budget followup hangs heavily on Canuck star Ryan Reynolds, the pretty boy star of chick flicks including Definitely, Maybe and The Proposal.
Here, the Vancouver native attempts to transform his rom-com reputation to that of a full-blown leading man capable of helming a summer 3D blockbuster.
The stakes are high with Green Lantern — it reportedly cost $300 million and comes with a range of revenue-boosting spinoffs including action figures, video games and theme park rides.
Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, a cocky but talented fighter pilot who is recruited to join an intergalactic secret police force called the Green Lantern Corps. He’s bestowed with a mystical green ring that passes on the power to create anything the mind can imagine and he must master this new ability in time to save Earth from a super villain called Parallax.
Strong says the film’s vast outer space canvas sets it apart from other super hero movies.
“I know Superman goes to Krypton and Thor takes place in the world of the gods, but they don’t have this getting-off-earth-up-into-a-whole-new-space element,” he says.
“I mean, the layers are just so many. It’s a wonderful story, whereas essentially Batman and Superman are earthbound crime fighters, really.”
Strong notes that pretty much all of his scenes involved one-on-one time with Reynolds, chosen last year as People magazine’s “sexiest man alive.”
He says he takes delight in knowing that an all-American hero is being played by a Canadian.
He notes that his next sci-fi extravaganza, John Carter, stars Kelowna, B.C.’s Taylor Kitsch as a war vet transplanted to Mars.
“It’s interesting that (Canadians) are doing these super hero parts.”
Strong says he got along great with Reynolds.
“You get sick of hearing actors describe other actors they’ve worked with as being lovely and, ’It was all great and we were all friends,’ but in this case it’s absolutely true,” he says.
“He’s a real gent and is very intelligent and is very professional and you can ask no more.”
Although super hero tales are well-established popcorn pleasers in North America, Strong admits to finding the fascination a bit foreign.
“It’s imbedded in American culture to be the best, to be the hero, to save everybody, it’s part of the culture. That’s what you all want to be. We’re not like that in Britain. Look back to Shakespeare and our heroes — Macbeth and Richard III and Coriolanus — none of them good guys, but we don’t shirk away from exploring the dark side, traditionally, in our theatrical characters and I think that’s probably why you probably find actors like Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, Tony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, who’ve all played villains and that’s how they got into American movies.”
Strong says his own path to darker roles was a rocky one.
After establishing himself as the good guy with gigs including Mr. Knightley in a smallscreen version of Emma with Kate Beckinsale, he battled for a part in the BBC gangster series, The Long Firm.
“Everybody involved with that production said, ’No, no, you can’t do that, it’s too dark. You haven’t got the ability to plumb the psychological depth to deliver the darkness of this individual,’ ” he recalls.
“Anyway, I got the part, we won awards, everybody changed their mind and ever since it’s been villains. The problem is they’re such great parts to play. I can’t turn them down.”
Green Lantern opens Friday.