Kane's basic character bio is as follows;
Kane is sadistic young man in his twenties. He is new to the hitman gig, but he relishes in causing other people pain. He is a very shallow, artificial and self-obsessed person. He doesn’t have any regard for human life. He is like a wolf. He has cold, dead eyes. He is difficult to read. He might even seem playful at times, but he will turn on you without warning.
I've looked at many different characters while developing Kane. Here are a few.
One of my very early inspirations for Kane was Doug Hutchison's portrayal of the sadistic prison guard in The Green Mile. Percy is a small (in both body and mind) man who works on death row for the pleasure of watching prisoners die. The other guards want him reassigned, but his contacts enable him to stay on the Green Mile. Percy is an instigator, stirring up trouble with his violent behaviour. This is a character that stays with you for a long time and I think chunks of him bled through to our characterisation of Kane.
Robert Carlyle is fantastic in Trainspotting as Begbie. Begbie is addicted to violence, and he will gladly take any opportunity to indulge it, from picking fights at the pub to mugging unsuspecting tourists. He is brutal and temperamental. Begbie can easily be considered mentally unstable.
I love Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler and I think Jake Gyllenhaal is terrifying in the role. Admittedly he is maybe slightly different to these other inspirations, but he was certainly someone Aaron and I discussed. I absolutely love this quote from the character; "What if my problem wasn't that I don't understand people, but that I don't like them? What if I was the kind of person who was obliged to hurt you for this? I mean, physically. I think you'd have to believe afterward, if you could, that agreeing to participate and then backing out at the critical moment was a mistake. Because that's what I'm telling you, as clearly as I can."
There are many more characters who have defined Kane, however the final one I'll mention here is Guy Pearce's portrayal of Charlie Rakes in Lawless. Rakes is a clean-cut, calm, and intelligent man, but this is to veil his sadistic nature. It soon becomes a very thin and inefficient disguise; he is shown to have been a monstrous, ruthless, merciless, and violent man with little regard for ethics. Although he was an agent of the law, his methods for fighting crime and dealing with criminals were often brutal and occasionally even horrific. He was shown to be quick-tempered and extremely aggressive towards those he had perceived to have insulted him. He was shown to have a condescending view of the people of Franklin county, as well as people living in the backwoods in general. He held the people as inferior to him and thought of them as savages.
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