Melissa McCarthy looks to continue cementing her reputation as the biggest comedy star in Hollywood with the upcoming release of her newest farce, The Boss. The film sees the comedian as wealthy and successful, but not overly friendly, businesswoman Michelle Darnell, who is the richest woman in America until she loses it all after being arrested for insider trading. Turning to her former assistant (Kristen Bell) for help, she comes up with a plan to build a ruthless new empire on the backs of Girl Scout brownies to get back on top. But standing in her way is her nemesis, Renault. Renault is played by Peter Dinklage in The Boss , and it's a role that will have you rooting against the actor for once.
Dinklage is obviously best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones ; and he's arguably the most likable character on a show filled with horrible people. Thanks to his breakout role as Tyrion, Dinklage has become a beloved star, but in The Boss he's using his star power for evil. This puts fans in the awkward spot of not wanting to see Dinklage's character succeed on screen, since he'll be going head to head against Michelle, who despite her flaws, is still the film's protagonist.
So what makes his character so bad? The first thing going against Dinklage in the film is his name. Now, objectively, there's nothing wrong with the name Renault. But according to an interview that Dinklage gave Screen Slam, the character's name is actually Ronald, but he calls himself Renault to give his name a French-sounding twist. He also sports a ponytail and goatee combo, which is the universally-accepted look for dirtbags everywhere. Those two pretentious moves alone should be enough to get the audience to turn against him, but wait, it gets worse.
In the same interview, Dinklage implies that Renault and Michelle were once romantically linked, and now that he can't have her, he literally wants to kill her. "Since he has a history with Michelle, I think all the violence comes out of not recapturing those early days," Dinklage said. This is backed up by a scene from the red band trailer, in which Renault and Michelle get into a sword fight — and it doesn't look like he's holding back.
So yeah, being a pretentious dweeb is one thing, but being a violent psychopath toward your former romantic partner is definitely taking unlikability to a whole other level. Something tells me I'm going to need a palate cleanser of about 40 hours of Tyrion Lannister after seeing Dinklage's heel turn in The Boss , which hits theaters on April 8.
Images: Universal Pictures; giphy.com
