Rufus Sewell isn't sure why people think he's so good at being bad. The striking British actor has played a wide variety of parts on stage and screen, from Shakespeare to Stoppard, yet he's probably best known to American audiences for his series of villainous roles in films such as Bless the Child and The Legend of Zorro. One could chalk it up to Sewell's intense, brooding good looks—he's mastered the art of glowering—or that powerful voice that slices through dialogue and cuts his opponents down to size. Both were put to such excellent use in the jousting epic A Knight's Tale in 2001, in which Sewell played the evil Count Adhemar, that the actor noticed a lot of bad guys coming his way after the movie's release. "I loved playing a baddie in that film, but after that people kind of got the idea that's all I do, which is not the case," he notes. "There was a spate where I would open a script, and there was a page where it says, 'There's a dark figure on a horse,' and I knew it was me."
But even after playing a royal who loses the girl to his poorer rival in A Knight's Tale, Sewell couldn't resist the opportunity to join the cast of The Illusionist, the enchanting new period drama from writer-director Neil Burger in which Sewell plays…a royal who loses the girl to his poorer rival. In this case, the rival in question is a 19th-century Austrian magician (played by Edward Norton) who enrages Sewell's Crown Prince Leopold with his powerful illusions and the power he holds over the prince's fiancée (Jessica Biel). Sewell was immediately drawn to the script, which seamlessly blends romance and mystery. "When I first read it, I thought, 'Oh, they want me for the baddie, but I'll try to convince him to give me the part of Inspector Uhl.' I thought that was a wonderful part, but it had already been cast, apparently, with some actor called Paul Giamatti," Sewell says with a laugh. "So I begrudgingly read for the part of the crown prince and realized it was more interesting than I'd originally thought. I think I'm slightly prejudicial against bad-guy roles because I'm sent them so often. But it turned out to be a far more complex role—almost tragic."
Of course a hero is only as good as his nemesis, and the matchup of Norton and Sewell is a large part of what makes the film so compelling. And the prince may be a nasty piece of work, but as played by Sewell, he's a compelling figure and even oddly sympathetic. "That was the idea: to secretly make people feel bad for him," notes the actor. He doesn't mind revisiting the villain role, knowing that his wide range will be on display over the next few months: Sewell is currently appearing onstage at London's Duke of York's Theatre in Tom Stoppard's new play, Rock 'n' Roll, playing a gentle scholar who becomes embroiled in the politics of communism. He will then be seen as a "good guy" in Amazing Grace, a biopic about 18th-century antislavery pioneer William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd). Sewell confesses to having no master plan for choosing his roles. "I like the idea of being surprised by what comes along," he says. "I like to see people slightly adrift; I like to be cast against what people may think is my type. And just see what life throws my way."
And when it comes to choosing between stage and screen, he believes that it's all about the role. "I tend to be attracted to parts, rather than mediums," he notes. "Up until relatively recently, I found the parts that came my way on stage were far more varied and complex. Whereas if I wanted to work in American movies, there were a relatively limited spectrum of parts that come my way, which I found a little frustrating. That's what made the stage seem so much more attractive."
In any medium, the actor has always been drawn to complex character roles; some of his most memorable include the haunted amnesiac of Dark City and volatile artist Mark Gertler in Carrington. "I remember when I was 7 or 8 watching Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame on TV, and that was the first time I ever thought about acting. I remember thinking, 'That's what I'd like to do.' It wasn't James Bond; it was Charles Laughton," says Sewell. "I remember loving actors like Anthony Hopkins and Marlon Brando. It seemed behind their eyes was a different, slightly more complex story than what the rest of them was doing, and I always loved that."