If you watch The Boys, you already know how capable Antony Starr is when it comes to portraying a sinister villain thanks to his role as Homelander. But in his latest role for G20, which is among the titles new on streaming this week, he plays a terrorist named Rutledge who not only goes up against a room of global leaders, but Viola Davis as a U.S. president on a mission to stop him. When CinemaBlend spoke to Starr about the new movie, he talked to us about the great “fun” he had tapping into playing another bad guy.
When I spoke to the actor virtually, while he films Season 5 of The Boys, I asked him how he approaches playing not one but multiple characters he might not agree with. Here’s what he had to say:
I think it's interesting 'cause I think maybe I do agree with him. I don't agree with what he's doing, but I do think I empathize with the guy. I think he's got a pretty compelling case, honestly. I just think I would pull the character aside and go ‘Buddy, just take a breath. Just relax. Let's talk this out. Use your words.’ But, this guy's reached a point where he doesn't want to use words.
Considering Antony Starr has to believe he’s G20’s villain and make us believe in his mad plan to convince the world to use crypto currency instead of current currencies by using deepfake tech of world leaders, this answer totally makes sense. The actor shared that while he doesn’t agree with Rutledge's actions in the movie (of course), he did understand the place he was at as a character, and it helped him play the role.
As the actor also explained (in the video above) he thinks his character has "seen words fail and ready to be an "agent of change." Starr said he had a "lot of fun" thinking through the with the character's backstory and creating what would "drive" him. He also stated:
It's almost like a superhero show or movie in a way. She's the ultimate hero. He's the villain and it's good versus evil, but they reflect each other. They're very similar to each other in a lot of ways. Everything that she got, he wanted and didn't get. In fact, he sees her as a symbol of his pain and his loss and that's what's really driving him through the whole movie. So, it kind of makes sense of why he's got so much venom and vitriol towards her. And, getting to go head-to-head with Viola, who does wanna do that?
During CinemaBlend’s interview with G20’s director Patricia Riggen, she spoke to Viola Viola Davis doing all sorts of training in order to play an action hero president with a background in the military. And as Starr alluded to in our conversation, the fictional U.S. president and Rutledge can relate to one another, as both serving their countries and having some trauma for that time in their lives.
But while Davis’ Danielle Sutton used her background to become the leader of America, Rutledge uses his pain to hold over a dozen world leaders in hopes of turning the world into chaos. Considering the dark places Starr has gone to between The Boys and this new release, it’s certainly interesting to hear what he thinks about playing a villain and how he really thinks about their motivations and why they would inflict pain on others.
We are curious when the next time Antony Starr will play a hero after these recent roles. He’s talked previously about his failed James Bond audition and threw shade at rumors he could play DC Comics’ Booster Gold, but given his talent, we imagine he’ll get all sorts of opportunities to play a range of characters moving forward. G20 is streaming now!
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