Though we can’t condone any villainous behavior in real life, those portraying villains have certainly enjoyed their fair share of success. Take Boris Karloff, for example, who made his mark on cinema playing misunderstood antiheroes in movies like The Raven (1935) and Frankenstein (1931).

During an interview with The Times, Karloff called playing The Creature the “turning point” of his career, as it marked a career pivot. From then on, Karloff played a darker sort of character. Karloff was so talented that the audience came to expect an air of evil from his characters.

“I’m content to be the villain in every piece because it is expected of me,” the actor said during an interview with The Asheville Times. “I’ve played a few straight parts, but people were always sure I was going to do something terrible.”

Karloff relied on an audience to tell whether his performance was truly investing.

“An audience’s responses will tell you everything,” said the actor. “If you listen, and the most beautiful thing of all is the complete stillness of an audience so intent it scarcely breathes.”

”I’m jolly lucky to have built a trademark of horror,” Karloff said during another interview with UPI. “This is what every manufacturer is trying to do, establish his product through a familiar trademark. If it weren’t for being typecast, I might be driving a truck by now, which I did in the early 1920s.”