The Joker, ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
I watched Heath Ledger’s the Joker a lot for Kick-Ass 2 because Mark [Millar], who wrote the comic books, told me he was an inspiration for the character of my character, The Mother Fucker. Heath is so good in that. Just pure chaos. Terrifying.
The Agents, ‘The Matrix’ (1999)
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My dad rented The Matrix for us when I was 10, and I must have watched it like seven times on videocassette. When you’re a kid, you can watch things over and over in your head, and it gets imprinted in your mind. The agents are fantastic in those films, and you can’t kill them! They just keep duplicating and coming back for more.
Magneto, ‘X-Men’ (2000)
I was a huge fan of the X-Men comics growing up, and Magneto is great. The relationship between Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart is amazing, and he’s super old! You love seeing a super old guy kick ass. He’s super smart, and it’s cool to see a relationship where two best friends become enemies, because when the villain knows his enemy so well, you can take the story to very dark places. It would’ve been cool if the backstory was that Professor X had fucked Magneto’s girlfriend, and that’s the reason why they hated each other. “Why’s he destroying all these cities?” “Well, he fucked my girlfriend.”
Keyser Söze, ‘The Usual Suspects’ (1995)
Kevin Spacey is so good. That twist gets me every time, even though you know it’s coming. He’s so demented and so smart in that movie. That he created this elaborate backstory from just looking at a wall full of photographs, and even faked that crazy limp? Unreal. I love Kevin Spacey, man, he’s one of my favorite actors of all time.
Scar, ‘The Lion King’ (1994)
Scar was dirty. That was pretty dramatic for a kid to see, killing the father, Mufasa, off like that. That was heavy. But it was my favorite Disney movie growing up. My mom kept taking me to the Broadway play and I saw it, like, 10 times. I was obsessed with certain things when I was younger: The Matrix, The Lion King, Wolverine. Plus, Jeremy Irons is the voice of this evil lion and he kills his brother, and Simba is just this little baby.
Jaws, ‘Jaws’ (1975)
Jaws is amazing. So scary, dude. Me and my brother would watch Jaws when we were younger and we’d put in the cassette, and right when the credits would go and the creepy Jaws theme would kick in, my parents would have to turn it off because we’d start crying hysterically. My parents were like, “Just get through the opening credits!” But we couldn’t watch it. So we had to watch it years later. I’ve also been on the ride at Universal and would try to sit on the very edge of it because I love getting scared.
Mugatu, ‘Zoolander’ (2001)
Will Ferrell is so great in Zoolander. I’m such a big Will fan. Will and Jim Carrey are the two comedians I was obsessed with when I was younger. I love his performance because it’s so zany in some respects, like that scene where he’s trying to hypnotize Zoolander and is dressed as this demented little kid licking a lollipop, and then Will’s so great at downplaying scenes, like when Zoolander asks, “What is this? A center for ants?” and Will is just standing there like, “What? Are you kidding me?” So subtle and brilliant.
Annie Wilkes, ‘Misery’ (1990)
Whenever I get a tweet from a crazy fan I think, “Don’t respond … don’t give them anything,” because it’s always in the back of my mind that something like this could happen. Ugh, that scene where she puts the block of wood in between his ankles and just smashes them with a sledgehammer … Ugh. I love movies that are slow burners.
Alien, ‘Aliens’ (1986)
Alien was my dad’s favorite horror movie, but I probably liked the second one more because it’s such an awesome action movie. I love aliens just in general. How can you go wrong with acid blood? And those face-huggers are fucking terrifying.
Max Cady, ‘Cape Fear’ (1991)
That accent Robert De Niro does is so funny and so creepy. The scene he does with Juliette Lewis at the school where he kisses her and then sticks his finger in her mouth is so creepy. And she’s into it, and then he leaves, and she’s like, “What the fuck did I just do?” So perverted. She was one of the best child actors, Juliette Lewis.
