There is a trick to writing villains. Many first time screenwriters make the mistake of having their antagonist enjoy doing evil. Sure there are times when those bad guys can be fun, but mostly they just come off as one dimensional and boring.

The trick to writing villains is to write them as if they were the good guy. No one goes through life wanting to do evil. Even when someone is doing evil, they themselves don’t think that they are. Their behavior makes perfect sense to them.

This scene from The Third Man is a shining example of this. Orson Welles plays a despicable man who is selling bad penicillin on the black market resulting in the death of children. The writer delved into the character and figured out how a man like that would rationalize it. By the end of the scene you see how warped his thinking has become, but also completely understand how he thinks he’s doing nothing wrong. He is the hero in his own mind.

The Third Man is a great film that you should definitely add to your Netflix queue if you haven’t seen it.