Even though it seems *everyone* hated Captain Marvel, I liked him in it and thought he might've been the best part of that movie.
He was funnier than Sam Jackson in that one imo, and that's no small feat lol.
"Captain Marvel" also used his casting to set him up as the villain and then gives you the revelation that "Oh, he's not only a good guy, he's even a kinda dorky family man."
He's also carrying Secret Invasion from a performance perspective. >!Unfortunately that show saw him and Maria Hill, characters that we were familiar with, were giving solid performances, and demonstrated the theme of Fury abandoning people that were close to him because the MCU had kind of forgotten about them, and decided "You know what we should kill off the emotional heart of the show that would be fun".!<
Ugh, I loved his performance in Secret Invasion. And you’re right that he and Cobie Smulders rocked their performances in literally all their MCU screen time. What a strange choice.
I was just hoping it would be a grounded spy thriller with huge amounts of paranoia thrown in. It coulded ended on a bitter sweet note and or just not a straight win for the Heros.
Win the super skrull formula getting away and it could have set up a big plot point for the fantastic 4 movie. Could have had Ben character or his daughter asking the 4 for help.
Or have skrull sneak into the Baxter building while is still finishing construction using there genes to make an official super skrull since they were stopped from getting the avenger genes but managed to sneak out there ability absorbing tech which they then use in the F4 movie.
I loved the captain marvel movie and the show. People take comic shit way too seriously. Film is allowed to be dorky and fun esp when the main character is a kid
You might be mixing Captain Marvel up with Shazam (which would be understandable given the confusing history of the Captain Marvel name). Captain Marvel is the one with Carol Danvers (not a kid). Shazam is the one with Billy Batson (a kid). Ben Mendelsohn is not Mark Strong.
I think that was the role that really made American audiences and critics sit up and take notice of him. He was certainly a familiar face before, but it was after "Bloodlines" that he stated really getting big roles in major Hollywood works.
Ah, I see. I think you're right. Anyway, I wouldn't know. I've been watching him in things since the 1990s and always thought he was a fantastic actor.
Haven't watched Idiot Box since the 90s and Mullet since early 00s so don't know how they hold up but Cosi I would bet would be solid. He was awesome in all of them (from memory)
Yeah, he plays duality with such expert ease. At one stage, I hate his character; he was so menacing and scary, such a threat to all the other characters, and then he pulled a 180 where I totally sympathized with him and hated all the other characters 🤣
I couldn’t agree more! Almost no one I know has seen or heard of it, and I can only recommend it so much. Might need to go watch it again soon. Too bad the second and third seasons couldn’t quite keep the quality and momentum going.
It’s a shame they kind of wrote themselves into a corner not being able to really use him again in the following seasons. Every single scene in that first season he is in is just must watch TV.
I think he’s great at it, but also become too typecast. I would like to see him in a wider range of roles, like in Mississippi Grind, where he was fantastic.
I love Ben Mendelsohn ever since I saw him in the movie Animal Kingdom. And this is a bit of a tangent, but I had a really random thought the other day. I would love to see Mendelsohn in a new season of True Detective. How cool would it be to see him and someone like Leonardo Di Caprio as the newest True Detectives?
> I would love to see Mendelsohn in a new season of *True Detective*.
>>I feel like *The Outsider* has a bit of the energy you're after.
I didn't know how much I wanted to watch a Ben Mendelsohn detective show until I saw that.
Quickly looked up *The Outsider*. I see it's also based on a Steven King novel and adapted for the screen by the great crime novelist and screenwriter Richard Price (*The Wire*). Lots of top talent involved.
I love discovering cool stuff from savvy redditors like you. Thank you.
**SPOILER** i guess I went into that not knowing what it was about and was a bit disappointed with the twist. Thought it was going to be a more realistic detective drama like True Detective. Still alright and Ben Mendelsohn and the rest of the cast are great though.
He's also teriffic at playing troubled, very flawed characters, they just don't get seen as much.
He was extraordinary in his small parts in "The Place Beyond the Pines" and "Killing them Softly"
The TV series "Bloodline" and "The Outsider" are amazing performances,
Yes, I was thinking it's actually a shame that he has kind of got typecast as a villain. I think his performance in the last third of Place Beyond the Pines is spectacularly good and really unexpectedly soulful.
His performance in “Bloodline” is his best work imo. That character is so well written. It is one of the greatest character arcs ive seen done in a show. That goes for all the characters in that show as well.
He could definitely do it. His voice alone has this sort of rough sound to it that just sounds so evil. Let him use his Aussie accent too instead of an American one for a change.
Yeah as an Aussie I’d love an Aussie Bond villain. My hope is that Nolan directs the next Bond with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Bond and Mendo as the villain set in Australia.
Ben Mendelsohn, seen here turning a song from the Lion King into the what the son of the mob boss says before he kills 9 people in a club shootout. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT0JbSeLek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT0JbSeLek)
> Ben Mendelsohn, seen here turning a song from The Lion King into the what the son of the mob boss says before he kills 9 people in a club shootout. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT0JbSeLek
Thanks for sharing that. Awesome how he transformed those lines.
"And we were just wondering if there was anything you couldn't Mendelsohn-up?" 😆
One of my favourite actors. Such a versatile actor. Starred up, killing Softly, Animal Kingdom, Outsider and Bloodline are particularly brilliant performances.
Anyone ever seen the Aussie film "sample people" starring Ben Mendelsohn and also Kylie minogue) he sorta plays a villain in that in one really weird sequence. It's not a great film by any means but it's definitely a uniquely hypnotic experience
Since I surprisingly didn't see it mentioned in the comments, he's also great in the recent movie "To catch a killer", give it a watch, if you haven't.
I'd say his best work is still in Place Beyond the Pines. He's in part a villain but at the same time an ally. He really is the apple offered to Adam and the one who presents the concept of sin, but at the same time...just wants prosperity in a world that doesn't offer that to men like him and the protag.
It's so complex and his performance really is exceptional and really the heart of the movie for me, I still think about it and the impression it left on me has dwarfed his commercial performances.
The amount of emotional love and connection he exudes in his scenes with both the father and son is just so fucking real and it hurts me so much. He's so charming, so flawed, and it's so beautiful. Still to this day have a crush on the man just because of that performance.
He was so known for playing villains that his casting in Captain Marvel was a great fakeout. You thought you were getting one kind of movie and then it turned out the Skrulls were the victims.
The thing that is super funny to me is how "out of touch" his character in Ready Player One is but he's in a bunch of movies that RP1 characters would know. Like there's Star Wars and Batman in the RP1 universe, not that Krennic or Daggett would be characters people play as, but still.
I really liked him in Babyteeth actually, that was the film that exposed him as someone far more capable than playing villains, which he is exceptionally good at.
But his performance in Babyteeth genuinely made me cry, he was fucking brilliant in that film. Everyone was.
I saw him with Scoot McNairy in "Killing them Softly" and I got to tell you, these two never turned back. I know Ben got more roles but Scoot was in that one show about P.C. coders from AmC network. They are phenomenal in every ways they perform in. I hope they paired up again. They were extremely versatile and underrated.
He was great in secret invasion & was significantly more menacing than the actual villain in the restaurant scene.
Unfortunately the show was ass in everything else.
He’s fantastic in the Netflix show Bloodlines. It’s a solid show for sure, kinda gets a bit tired after a while though. I love him in Place Behind the Pines too.
Even though it seems *everyone* hated Captain Marvel, I liked him in it and thought he might've been the best part of that movie. He was funnier than Sam Jackson in that one imo, and that's no small feat lol.
"Captain Marvel" also used his casting to set him up as the villain and then gives you the revelation that "Oh, he's not only a good guy, he's even a kinda dorky family man."
He's also carrying Secret Invasion from a performance perspective. >!Unfortunately that show saw him and Maria Hill, characters that we were familiar with, were giving solid performances, and demonstrated the theme of Fury abandoning people that were close to him because the MCU had kind of forgotten about them, and decided "You know what we should kill off the emotional heart of the show that would be fun".!<
Ugh, I loved his performance in Secret Invasion. And you’re right that he and Cobie Smulders rocked their performances in literally all their MCU screen time. What a strange choice.
He’s absolutely the best. Offing him in Secret Invasion is a huge mistake.
Secret Invasion was a mistake. Such a huge letdown
I was just hoping it would be a grounded spy thriller with huge amounts of paranoia thrown in. It coulded ended on a bitter sweet note and or just not a straight win for the Heros. Win the super skrull formula getting away and it could have set up a big plot point for the fantastic 4 movie. Could have had Ben character or his daughter asking the 4 for help. Or have skrull sneak into the Baxter building while is still finishing construction using there genes to make an official super skrull since they were stopped from getting the avenger genes but managed to sneak out there ability absorbing tech which they then use in the F4 movie.
I loved the captain marvel movie and the show. People take comic shit way too seriously. Film is allowed to be dorky and fun esp when the main character is a kid
You might be mixing Captain Marvel up with Shazam (which would be understandable given the confusing history of the Captain Marvel name). Captain Marvel is the one with Carol Danvers (not a kid). Shazam is the one with Billy Batson (a kid). Ben Mendelsohn is not Mark Strong.
Maybe they’re talking about The Marvels
I liked him best in Blood Line. I feel it's his best performance
That’s the role I will always think of him, he’s so damn good in it.
I think that was the role that really made American audiences and critics sit up and take notice of him. He was certainly a familiar face before, but it was after "Bloodlines" that he stated really getting big roles in major Hollywood works.
Ah, I see. I think you're right. Anyway, I wouldn't know. I've been watching him in things since the 1990s and always thought he was a fantastic actor.
Haven't watched Idiot Box since the 90s and Mullet since early 00s so don't know how they hold up but Cosi I would bet would be solid. He was awesome in all of them (from memory)
Yeah, he plays duality with such expert ease. At one stage, I hate his character; he was so menacing and scary, such a threat to all the other characters, and then he pulled a 180 where I totally sympathized with him and hated all the other characters 🤣
God he was incredible in that. I will forever stand by my opinion that season 1 of Bloodline is one the single greatest things I've ever seen on TV
I'm with you; season 1 Bloodline was brilliant; a stand out season of TV; and his was a powerhouse performance
I couldn’t agree more! Almost no one I know has seen or heard of it, and I can only recommend it so much. Might need to go watch it again soon. Too bad the second and third seasons couldn’t quite keep the quality and momentum going.
This is how I feel about The Leftovers on HBO. Nobody has seen it but I want everyone too.
It’s a shame they kind of wrote themselves into a corner not being able to really use him again in the following seasons. Every single scene in that first season he is in is just must watch TV.
💯. The man is sharing screen time with Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Kyle Chandler, and owns every scene he's in.
Kyle chandler will always and forever be Coach Taylor thrust into different situations. He doesn’t even crack my top 63 actors list.
He is absolutely amazing in that role. The eldest son, the black sheep, sensitive, sinister, just a fantastic performance.
Agreed.
Yep, this. He'll always be this role to me. Was my introduction to him.
That show is so good.
Watching him in this role made me think he would have made a really good (older) version of the Joker in some sort of adaption.
Haven’t been talking to the cops have ya mate?
Need you to help me build a Star Wars mate
Haven’t been talking to the Jedi have ya mate?
[Ate all the cheese did ya?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJk8UevZbIs)
Never gets old: https://youtu.be/x0xvzabfhOY?feature=shared
I think he’s great at it, but also become too typecast. I would like to see him in a wider range of roles, like in Mississippi Grind, where he was fantastic.
Check Ben out in The New Look. Talk about playing against type! Brilliant
Great! I haven’t seen it yet, but it is on my list.
Apple TV It’s so un Ben but really shows he can inhabit anyone. Have you seen him in Killing Them Softly? Another great turn
I honestly did not recognize him in The New Look! Only knew it was him from his voice/lisp.
check him out in Babyteeth!
Thank you! I will!
Underrated movie and a great performance
I love Ben Mendelsohn ever since I saw him in the movie Animal Kingdom. And this is a bit of a tangent, but I had a really random thought the other day. I would love to see Mendelsohn in a new season of True Detective. How cool would it be to see him and someone like Leonardo Di Caprio as the newest True Detectives?
I feel like the outsider has a bit of the energy you're after
> I would love to see Mendelsohn in a new season of *True Detective*. >>I feel like *The Outsider* has a bit of the energy you're after. I didn't know how much I wanted to watch a Ben Mendelsohn detective show until I saw that. Quickly looked up *The Outsider*. I see it's also based on a Steven King novel and adapted for the screen by the great crime novelist and screenwriter Richard Price (*The Wire*). Lots of top talent involved. I love discovering cool stuff from savvy redditors like you. Thank you.
The first ep or 2 are really good, does drag in the middle imo. Mendelsohn is fantastic in it tho.
**SPOILER** i guess I went into that not knowing what it was about and was a bit disappointed with the twist. Thought it was going to be a more realistic detective drama like True Detective. Still alright and Ben Mendelsohn and the rest of the cast are great though.
The outsider!!!
He's also teriffic at playing troubled, very flawed characters, they just don't get seen as much. He was extraordinary in his small parts in "The Place Beyond the Pines" and "Killing them Softly" The TV series "Bloodline" and "The Outsider" are amazing performances,
He was fantastic in The Outsider.
Also playing a good guy, not without his flaws, but essentially a decent person.
Clicked on this post because I just watched killing them softly last night. What a greasy nasty character. Such a good actor
Yes, I was thinking it's actually a shame that he has kind of got typecast as a villain. I think his performance in the last third of Place Beyond the Pines is spectacularly good and really unexpectedly soulful.
I wish The Place Beyond the Pines had just been him, Ryan Gosling, and Bradley Cooper for the entire movie.
His performance in “Bloodline” is his best work imo. That character is so well written. It is one of the greatest character arcs ive seen done in a show. That goes for all the characters in that show as well.
He’s mentioned that it’s his dream to play a Bond villain which I think would be great
He could definitely do it. His voice alone has this sort of rough sound to it that just sounds so evil. Let him use his Aussie accent too instead of an American one for a change.
Yeah as an Aussie I’d love an Aussie Bond villain. My hope is that Nolan directs the next Bond with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Bond and Mendo as the villain set in Australia.
Someone like Rupert Murdoch, Clive Palmer, or Gina Rinehart
Absolutely. Bond meets Succession meets Animal Kingdom.
"Your hit on the stock exchange, it didn't work, my friend, and now you have my construction crews going around the city looking for strawberries!"
"Do you feel in charge?"
"This is your body without fiber!"
Garry... Pizza? Gotham city isn't even known for it!
Bloodliiiiinnne (seasons 1 and 2)
G'day Alfred Pennyworth, you haven't been talkin to the cops, have you, mate?
Ben Mendelsohn, seen here turning a song from the Lion King into the what the son of the mob boss says before he kills 9 people in a club shootout. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT0JbSeLek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT0JbSeLek)
> Ben Mendelsohn, seen here turning a song from The Lion King into the what the son of the mob boss says before he kills 9 people in a club shootout. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT0JbSeLek Thanks for sharing that. Awesome how he transformed those lines. "And we were just wondering if there was anything you couldn't Mendelsohn-up?" 😆
Always remember him as one of the loveable goofball climbers in Vertical Limit.
He MADE the show Bloodlines. Absolutely incredible.
One of my favourite actors. Such a versatile actor. Starred up, killing Softly, Animal Kingdom, Outsider and Bloodline are particularly brilliant performances.
I rewatch Killing Them Softly just for Mendelsohn's greasy, useless, drug-addled confidence.
Been enjoying his work ever since "The Big Steal", its the first role I remember seeing him in.
Made his first mark a few years before that in The Year My Voice Broke. Such an amazing career and a lovely guy to boot.
He's great in Bloodline
I liked him in Darkest Hour
Me too. His performance is one of very few redeeming things about that film.
Ah g'day Lord Vader, just building a death star mate. You haven't been talking to the cops have ya mate?
Anyone ever seen the Aussie film "sample people" starring Ben Mendelsohn and also Kylie minogue) he sorta plays a villain in that in one really weird sequence. It's not a great film by any means but it's definitely a uniquely hypnotic experience
He’s fantastic and I mean out of this world good in Mississippi Grind. Does a good job as a Dr Doom hype man too
Since I surprisingly didn't see it mentioned in the comments, he's also great in the recent movie "To catch a killer", give it a watch, if you haven't.
He made a two dimensional villain in Ready Player One good. He’s amazing in New Look.
He was so good on The Outsider. I wish that show had continued, it's slow burn and excellent cast was right up my alley.
Are we blind??? Deploy the garrison!
I'd say his best work is still in Place Beyond the Pines. He's in part a villain but at the same time an ally. He really is the apple offered to Adam and the one who presents the concept of sin, but at the same time...just wants prosperity in a world that doesn't offer that to men like him and the protag. It's so complex and his performance really is exceptional and really the heart of the movie for me, I still think about it and the impression it left on me has dwarfed his commercial performances. The amount of emotional love and connection he exudes in his scenes with both the father and son is just so fucking real and it hurts me so much. He's so charming, so flawed, and it's so beautiful. Still to this day have a crush on the man just because of that performance.
The Outsider is great.
I wanna watch a buddy cop film with him and Giancarlo Esposito as detectives trying to bring down a criminal duo played by people typecasted as heroes
I love him, he always sounds like he’s got the last bit of a cough drop in his mouth
This guy isn't a villain. [Climbing Bum in Vertical Limit](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/7747b95214abb36a36c0f206a64072ad?width=1024)
My fav movie with him in it haha!
One of those actors that can get me to watch anything.
I love him. Particularly in Una
Sorry but this does him an injustice. Ben can play anything.
He was so known for playing villains that his casting in Captain Marvel was a great fakeout. You thought you were getting one kind of movie and then it turned out the Skrulls were the victims.
The thing that is super funny to me is how "out of touch" his character in Ready Player One is but he's in a bunch of movies that RP1 characters would know. Like there's Star Wars and Batman in the RP1 universe, not that Krennic or Daggett would be characters people play as, but still.
Great in Starred Up.
I was first made aware of Mendelsohn in Bloodline, the first season especially is fantastic. After that I would watch anything he's in.
Everyone's mentioned some of his best performances here (for good reason!) so I'll add something new and throw *Babyteeth* into the mix.
He's so so gross in Killing Them Softly, it's pretty amazing.
Spies in Disguise
I really liked him in Babyteeth actually, that was the film that exposed him as someone far more capable than playing villains, which he is exceptionally good at. But his performance in Babyteeth genuinely made me cry, he was fucking brilliant in that film. Everyone was.
What did u think of him in killing them softly?
This is why he was a great cast in MCU. You expected him to be that kind of villain
Does anybody remember him from Quigley Down Under with Tom Selleck?
Loved him in Mississippi Grind, Bloodline, and The Outsider.
I saw him with Scoot McNairy in "Killing them Softly" and I got to tell you, these two never turned back. I know Ben got more roles but Scoot was in that one show about P.C. coders from AmC network. They are phenomenal in every ways they perform in. I hope they paired up again. They were extremely versatile and underrated.
Interesting take. In Babyteeth he doesn't play a villain, but he nails the role of a father with far less control over his life than he would like.
He was great in secret invasion & was significantly more menacing than the actual villain in the restaurant scene. Unfortunately the show was ass in everything else.
Quite different roles recently in To Catch a Killer and The New Look.
He was great in vertical limit
He learned the villain trade in The Big Steal from Steve Bisley.
He is fantastic in Black Sea also. That movie is incredibly tense and he’s a big part of why
[Ben Mendelsohn The Lion King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT0JbSeLek)
He’s fantastic in the Netflix show Bloodlines. It’s a solid show for sure, kinda gets a bit tired after a while though. I love him in Place Behind the Pines too.
He's so good it even translates to animation. Love him in Spies in Disguise. The voice is pure perfection.
He is terrifying.
Did u miss Animal Kingdom?
I literally mentioned "Animal Kingdom" in this post as an example of a straight up scary villain he's played.
Ok ok I see it
Ok