“I did think at one point that I’d reached an age where I could only play men from other dimensions,” the beloved English actor told BuzzFeed News.
Ben Pruchnie / Getty Images
TORONTO — "I don't want to be in anything that's a nuisance in the world," actor Bill Nighy said to BuzzFeed News earlier this month. "We've got enough trouble."
It's safe to say that whenever he's on screen, Nighy, 64, is about as far from a nuisance as one can get — his halting, singular delivery is often a standout in every film he does. The English actor started on stage in London and rose to international prominence with two very different movie roles in 2003: As the fearsome powerful vampire Viktor in the horror thriller Underworld, and as the lovably washed-up rock star Billy Mack in Love Actually. Since then, Nighy has bounced between blockbuster franchises like Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter to smaller but no less endearing British films like Shaun of the Dead and this month's Pride, which opens in the U.S. on Sept. 26.
While promoting Pride at the Toronto International Film Festival, Nighy sat down with BuzzFeed News to reflect upon 10 highlights, presented below in his own words, from his movie career since his breakout year in 2003.
Underworld (2003)
Screen Gems / courtesy Everett Collection
Nighy also played the Vampire Elder Viktor — a sworn enemy of the Lycans, or werewolves — in the first two sequels in this undying action-horror franchise, 2006's Underworld: Evolution and 2009's Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
Underworld is very, very good fun. Being a vampire — I'm all over it. I'm all about it. One of the things I really like is that you get to hiss like a cat. And the difficulty is the crew keeping a straight face. Scott Speedman and I used to have to put the end of our noses [together] and then hiss like a cat. You could never get through a take without laughing, because it's just such a ridiculous thing for grown men to be doing.
But I like vampire lore. I like when they talk about harnessing daylight in bullet form in order to kill vampires. I like that technical level of nonsense, really. I do dig it. And vampires are so much cooler than werewolves. Let's get real.
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