Certain actors can playmenacing figureslike no others. Some that spring to mind areAlan Rickman,Helena Bonham Carter, andRalph Fiennes. On the TV side, one of these menacing actors has got to beMichael Kelly. FromHouse of Cardsto, most recently,LionessandThe Penguin,Kelly’s ability to play shady figures with almost no redeeming qualities is unnerving. The veteran exceptionally plays characters who have their own twisted moral codes applicable to the world in which they inhabit. Even more unsettling than his acting ability are Kelly’s eyes. As we know fromScarface, the eyes never lie. He uses a glazed-over, blunt performance that truly makes him seem more devil than man, uncaring for anything other than the current task at hand.
Michael Kelly’s Characters Live by Their Own Principles of Morality
What the characters played by Michael Kelly seem to have in common is the way they do not play by any rules we in normal society would abide by. Particularly inHouse of CardsandThe Penguin,both characters seem to genuinely believe what they are doing is a necessary evil. Viti inThe Penguinalmost takes pleasure in trying to relegate Sofia (Cristin Milioti) to the role of a silent woman, and Doug inHouse of Cardsnever fails to carry out the task given to him by Francis (Kevin Spacey). Even Kelly himself pointed out this kind of self-righteousness of his character Westfield inLionessin aninterview withCollider. This kind of self-justification, the idea that what they are doing is playing by the rules of their world, gives them a kind of Thanos (Josh Brolin)-like agency, where they will never give up on what they believe must be done.
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“If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone.”
Michael Kelly’s Performance Always Portrays a Distain For the People He is Dealing With
Whilst the writing of Michael Kelly’s characters is brilliant seemingly every time,his performance is what truly makes you terrified of these characters. The way his eyes can glaze over, and his voice can be so dry and blunt, means that you believe he barely sees the person in front of him. InThe Penguin, it’s like he is bored when he is telling Sofia to go to Italy, or when he is threatening her life. This means that, when his rage does boil to the surface, as it does inHouse of Cardsat times, we see the true unstable monster behind the thin layer of restraint, making him terrifying even when he is being kind, as we know that he can snap at any moment if pushed just a little bit.
If his characters have a Thanos-like agency, then Kelly portrays them with a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)-like robotic focus. He seems genuinely tunnel visioned on his primary directive andwill stop at nothing until his mission is complete. Anyone trying to appeal to his better nature feels like they are trying to draw blood from a stone. Rather than simply a mad or mustache-twirling villain, the dryness of all his characters makes him someone who cannot be bargained with, and trying to do so is only going to put you in a worse position.
Michael Kelly is simply a fantastic actor and almost all of his roles show this. Some may argue that he is just playing the same characters over and over again, but I must disagree. The factall his characters exist within the graydoes not mean they are the same. They may all have subjective moral principles, but they all have different moral principles. Yet Doug is certainly more unstable than Viti, and Viti is certainly more morally evil than Westfield, and Westfield has way more agency than Doug, who lives to serve Francis. The only way you can say they are the same is that Kelly delivers a brilliant performance each time.
The Penguinis available to stream on Max in the U.S.
The Penguin
It follows the transformation of Oswald Cobblepot from a disfigured nobody to a noted Gotham gangster.
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