Bill Nighy

I have seen Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows twice since it opened within the last month and one man I did not expect to see was Mr. Bill Nighy.  Not because I think poorly of Nighy.  To the contrary, I believe the man is a brilliant actor.  But because it took me aback that the man was in yet another genre of movie as a completely different character from any of his others.  

I first encountered Nighy in 2003's Underworld as the "father" or eldest vampire in the clan Kate Beckinsale's Selin was in.  Now at this time I hadn't seen Nighy in anything else and didn't recognize that this man was in fact a creative genius.  My thoughts were that he was extremely creepy and played the role of "the elder who knows that he was correct in what he did and too bad that it started a war and etc, etc."  It wasn't until I saw him next in another 2003 film, Love Actually, that I began to realize his full talent.  In Love Actually Nighy is an older "rock star" who must come up with a Christmas song that is new and hip and will be better than the younger, popular boy band.  Nighy's acting chops are on full display when his Love Actually character, Billy Mack, preforms his vulgar song on live television while women dressed as trashy Santa's prance around him on stage.  And the audience continues to be surprised when Mack and his manager have a heart to heart afterward.  After Love Actually I saw Nighy in a string of British comedies:  Shaun of the Dead (where he plays Shaun's stepfather and Shaun finally learns to love him and excepts him as his "father" only after he's been bitten by a zombie and Shaun must leave him in the backseat of his car that is surrounded by other zombies), Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (in which Nighy plays a small role as one of the architects of the "new" universe after it is destroyed by a group of aliens) and Hot Fuzz (a movie with many of the same actors who joined Nighy in both Shaun of the Dead and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy).  Each character was different, but each character was also hysterical.  I think I most enjoyed Nighy as Philip, Shaun's stepfather in Shaun of the Dead.  The last movie that I recall seeing Nighy in before Harry Potter was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.  Now this must be said about his role as Davy Jones in the Pirates movies and (to a lesser extent) in the Underworld movies, Nighy is not scared to play a role in which you cannot recognize him physically.  It shows great dedication to the art to be cast beside heartthrobs Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp and the beautiful Keira Knightly looking like a giant octopus.  Kudos to him in those movies for holding his own.  Bloom, Depp and Knightly had made a name for themselves in the first Pirates, but Nighy quickly caught up with the second installment.  And by the third he was on level if not more recognized.  

So I commend Bill Nighy for not being a stagnant character.  For not doing the easy roles.  For being the drunk, old, washed-up rock star who seems crazy.  For being the disgusting, black-hearted, fishy version of Davy Jones Disney created.  For being the man who "stole" Shaun's mum and spent years being "not my dad" only to be bitten by a Zombie and have his BMW wrecked by a stepson who didn't care until too late.  You are awesome Bill Nighy!