"There's a long tradition in American filmmaking of having a sneering, classically trained British actor step in to play the villain in a big-budget production, whether that's Claude Rains, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons, or, in the case of Guy Ritchie's 2009 adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, a leather-clad and deeply intense Mark Strong. "It's an honorable profession, Brits going over to Hollywood and playing villains," Strong says over a video call."
"Strong's career as British villain for hire was majorly catapulted with his appearance in Sherlock Holmes as that version's antagonist, an occult-obsessed aristocrat named Lord Henry Blackwood who doesn't appear in the Arthur Conan Doyle novels and was invented for the film. Blackwood dies early in the movie, only to mysteriously resurrect himself. This, like all his "magic," turns out to be a trick that Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock has to solve."
"Then Lord Blackwood tries to enact a plan that involves poisoning much of Parliament, and he's finally thwarted in a third-act fight sequence that plays out on top of London's Tower Bridge, then in construction. The movie was Strong's highest-profile project to date, and it gave him the chance to enjoy the thrill of being on a big, well-financed American set, alongside Downey, who had just released the first Iron Man in 2008."
Mark Strong built a career embracing villainous, intense roles across film and stage. He frequently portrays antagonists in high-profile films such as Kick-Ass, Shazam!, and Body of Lies. In Guy Ritchie's 2009 Sherlock Holmes Strong played Lord Henry Blackwood, an occult-obsessed aristocrat created for the film who appears to resurrect and then plots to poison Parliament. Blackwood's apparent "magic" proves to be a trick that Sherlock must unravel, and the character is ultimately stopped during a climactic fight on London's Tower Bridge. The Sherlock Holmes role raised Strong's visibility and provided experience on a major American production; he is now channeling darkness in a Broadway production of Oedipus.
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