Entertainment

Oprah Winfrey Could Have Played a Killer?! Five Other Really Nice Celebs Who Played Evil

Oprah Winfrey has a career that people would kill to have. And while the media mogul/talk show host/philanthropist/actress is currently starring in Lee Daniel's The Butler, there is one role that she turned down. According to reports, Daniels wanted Oprah to play a serial killer in a former film project, but she refused to take on the murderous role. Yeah, we couldn't really see Oprah going all Misery on us either, but there are other really, really nice actors who played really, really mean people on screen.

by Kaitlin Reilly

Oprah, The Serial Killer?

Oprah Winfrey has a career that people would kill to have. And while the media mogul/talk show host/philanthropist/actress is currently starring in Lee Daniel's The Butler, there is one role that she turned down. According to reports, Daniels wanted Oprah to play a serial killer in a former film project, but she refused to take on the murderous role. Yeah, we couldn't really see Oprah going all Misery on us either, but there are other really, really nice actors who played really, really mean people on screen.

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Tobin Bell

Tobin Bell played the deeply disturbed serial killer Jigsaw in all seven of the Saw films (despite his character dying about halfway through the franchise), but his personal life is much less torture-y. When Tobin Bell isn't acting, he's coaching a Little League baseball team and going hiking. How wholesome.

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James Cromwell

James Cromwell plays bad really, really well. Most recently, Cromwell played not-super-ethical Dr. Arden on American Horror Story: Asylum (in which he cut off a person's limb, simply because he felt insulted by them, and a plethora of other less-than-sweet things). Yet in real life, Cromwell wouldn't hurt a fly... or at least an animal. He considers himself an ethical vegetarian, and often speaks out against animal cruelty. Though his heart is in the right place, sometimes Cromwell's love of animals gets him in a bit of trouble... the actor was arrested during an animal rights protest.

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Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, but the actress is far from cruel. She started the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) which works to protect African youth from HIV.

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Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy played the villain no one could understand, Bane, in The Dark Knight Rises. While we may have been rooting for Batman to triumph in the movie, the actor who plays Bane actually seems like a super nice guy. When he heard that a cancer patient desperately wanted to meet the actor, he arranged for the two of them to have a date — and he brought her a lucky diamond necklace. But if you're still on the fence, check out the adorableness of this video of him with his son.

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Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins rarely plays anything but a villain, and even won the Academy Award for his role as the cannibalistic killer Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs. He couldn't be any different than his character, though — Hopkins keeps a vegetarian diet and supports numerous charity organizations.

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