Allow me to explain, before my mom goes out in the backyard and practices rolling over in her grave.I had a role as a radio engineer working for the Nazi party in early World War II. Sensing something very wrong was going on, I lodged a complaint and was killed by SS agents.
Getting into that frame of mind was easier than if my character had been pro-Holocaust. But even if I were playing a bad guy, it's my job as an actor to believe that whatever my character is doing, he believes he's right.
A great example of this occured when Jeremy Renner, an actor who had been struggling in Hollywood for over a decade, secured the leading part in a film about Jeffrey Dahmer. Sensing this was a breakout role, Renner worked hard to understand what made Dahmer tick, including masturbating to pictures of cadavers in medical textbooks to understand Jeffrey's rather unusual sexual preference.
When Dahmer premiered, Renner was a sensation. Movie offers piled in, and he chose a role in the movie SWAT, was paid high six figures for it, and bought a house in the Hollywood Hills. He's been working ever since. Great actors do their homework.
Oh, and Mom, if it makes you feel better, I did play Moses once. Also the good kind.
