Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom (2010)
POPE!!!
(Seriously my first Ben love, this role was fucking incredible…just….chills!)
He moves through the world looking human and people assume he is one @wickednerdery.
YES!!! He is a complete and utter psychopath of the highest order (I’ve no doubt Pope would be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder). Every thing and every one is either to be used or destroyed and there’s nothing he isn’t capable of…all the while he puts on a show of docility, but even then always with the undercurrent of a threat as he sizes up and stares down with his gaze.
I could never truly express how amazing Ben was as this character @losethehours 😊
@wickednerdery I don’t think he does anything for show. I don’t think he ever intends to threaten. He seems a visceral creature so his actions are all based on gut instinct. Stop, Go, Eat, Sleep, Kill.
He has that stare but it does not seem to be a threat it is simply how he looks at everything and everyone. Which makes it all the more terrifying.
Nothing about him can be predicted and none of the current psychiatric labels are enough.
People around him learn to never catch his attention for anything.
The only one he seems to genuinely communicate with in any form is his mother. He’s learned from her that his brother’s are not to be physically harmed and he obeys that law. It does not extend to anyone else though.
When he is searching the house for his keys and is frustrated, agitated then even his thinking and language skills drop away. In trying to ask about the pretty young girlfriend he starts throwing out words and the one thing he did that was the most telling, the most chilling was how he threw in the word “human” under his breath. That’s one of his labels for her, “human”. That one thrown in moment said more to me than anything else. Who thinks in those terms? What thinks in those terms?
He is also very smart. He knows his family members are idiots so his paranoia is always set to high and he does not confer with them before he acts.
Oh, see, I really think he does, haha! Like when he’s asking Darren if he’s gay and if he’s scared...I think he intends to insult and intimidate, bully the younger into not backing out, but in a way that’s subtle and prevents Darren from responding negatively because Pope’s “just asking”, just wants Darren to talk to him about those things. (Outside as ammo, I doubt he cares if Darren is gay or scared lol.)
I agree on the stare @losethehours ...the threat isn’t intentional, it’s just how he looks at everything, but that sort of look is always threatening because it naturally says “you’re nothing/you’re food”. (I think even Ben said “Don’t look into his eyes because he’s just looking where he’s going to fucking bite you.”)
...He’s a shark in a human suit and while he tries to pass as the rest of us, he doesn’t wear that suit well enough. It’s why his seeming helpfulness/curiosity/human behavior never quite sits right and he becomes all the more disturbing to watch.
And, yes, he’s very bright and why he generally keeps his family out of the loop...I’ve always imagined his mother is one of the only ones who could keep up with his mind/match his personality on any level (her own viciousness is wonderfully interesting and, ha, far more subtle) and that’s why they seem to share a bond that seems otherwise impossible for a man - creature? - like Pope.
Also I agree that that scene where he goes “human” is one of the most revealing ones for his character....like you point out, who/what thinks in those terms? Because it’s not a human - I still imagine he’d be diagnosed with APD, but that doesn’t even cover what Pope is.
((PS: I love that I have someone to delve into Pope’s psychology/character with, finally, haha! And bless Ben for making him the creature-character he is!)