Patrick Stewart spent decades playing heroes. To me, his greatest performance was playing a monster

The article argues that Patrick Stewart’s performance as Darcy in the 2015 thriller *Green Room* was among the finest of his career. Best known for honourable characters such as Jean-Luc Picard and Professor X, Stewart used his familiar voice and composed manner to create a quietly menacing neo-Nazi who holds a punk band captive.

The band are trapped in the venue’s green room after witnessing a murder, and Darcy treats their lives as obstacles to be managed. Director Jeremy Saulnier praised Stewart’s understated authority and the pragmatism he brought to the role. The article says the part worked because it turned the qualities audiences trusted in Stewart into a source of menace, challenging the public image built by his better-known heroic roles.