I touched on it in my Lawless review, but I don’t think any actor is having more fun this year professionally than Guy Pearce. Lockout is a truly awful experience, but it’s pretty clear Pearce could sense that as he plays his main character as a scene-chewing loon. After donning old-person makeup in the abysmal-in-every-conceivable-way-except-visuals Prometheus, Pearce unleashed a nuanced oddball for the ages in Lawless, in the form of Special Agent Rakes. Anticipating him in Iron Man 3, I’m slightly bummed to find out his contributions won’t be utilized to their fullest extent. This according to an interview the star conducted with Vulture:
“Prometheus and Iron Man are really kind of cameo stuff, so the experience of shooting them … I mean, on some level, it’s tricky because you feel like a bit of an outsider. You don’t really live the experience that you do when you’re there all day every day with everybody. But at the same time, it can be more fun sometimes because you’re just working in concentrated spurts.”
I suggest checking out the article in its entirety (linked above); as it really is a great, insightful interview. Still, I’m not too concerned. Pearce’s character, Aldrich Killian, has a fairly interesting arc as far as Marvel Comics’ supporting-characters go. I don’t want to spoil it if the film is truly going in that direction, but I can absolutely see Pearce manage his limited screentime and knock it out of the park. As an actor who’s been consistently stealing the show as late, I wouldn’t mind seeing him do so again here.