Peter Stormare Is A Once-In-A-Lifetime Actor Who Doesn't Get The Credit He Deserves

Keanu Reeves plays the title character in 2005's Constantine. He's a man born with the unusual ability to see demons walking the Earth and trying to influence human behavior. He fights them off, hoping to earn enough goodwill to get himself into heaven.

When you're dealing with demons, the possibility of encountering the Devil is everpresent. That's where Stormare comes in. He plays Satan, but not the stereotypical version. Rather than being a red, horned monstrosity, Stormare's Satan has neck tattoos and wears a white suit.

The actor gives the character a controlled quality, as though he's fully aware of how untouchable his evil is and, therefore, feels no urge to showboat it. With a fierce look in his eyes, he radiates an unspeakable menace just waiting to be unleashed.

On the 2017 TV series American Gods, Stormare played Czernobog, a Slavic God who wields a sledgehammer as his weapon of choice. For understandable reasons, the character has been referred to as “Slavic Thor.”

Despite Czernobog's status as an Old God, he works in a Chicago slaughterhouse and is majorly addicted to cigarettes. Czernoborg has his evil moments, including those in which he wants to kill the show's hero, but other times, he displays surprising benevolence.

Stormare brings that duality powerfully to life. Rather than simply playing his character with a fickle, split personality, Stormare's sensitive portrayal helps the audience understand both emotional sides of the same being.

He also brings an unpredictability to Czernoborg, as you never quite know for sure which side will emerge at any given moment. When the dark side emerges, it's truly chilling to behold.

The 2002 film Minority Report takes place in the future, when beings known as “Precogs” can predict crimes before they occur, thus allowing authorities to apprehend perpetrators in advance.

In the film, Tom Cruise plays unit chief John Anderton, whom the Precogs claim will be guilty of a crime Anderton has no intention of committing. This sends him on the run in an effort to clear his name before he can be captured.

As part of his plan to stay off the radar, Anderton decides to replace his eyes via surgical procedure. Stormare plays Dr. Solomon P. Eddie, a sketchy surgeon who operates outside the traditional medical system. He exudes a certain sadistic quality and seems to get a rush out of performing uncomfortable surgeries. Dr. Eddie even returns Anderton's old eyes in a plastic bag as a “backup” pair.

Stormare's unsettling presence in the film really helps sell the danger of Anderton's surgery. He creates a doctor who sends chills up your spine, as he seems neither trustworthy nor competent.

Stormare's breakthrough role was in Joel and Ethan Coen's 1996 crime comedy Fargo. The story follows a shady car salesman who hires two criminals to kidnap his wife so he can demand a huge ransom from her wealthy father. Nothing about the scheme goes according to plan, leading to bad results for just about everyone.

The two hired criminals are Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear, played by Stormare. One of the amusing things about Gaear, aside from his love of pancakes, is that he barely speaks. In fact, he only speaks about 75 words in the whole movie. Nevertheless, the actor's very presence conveys his character's complete and total sociopathy through menacing facial expressions and body movements. Of course, shoving Carl into a wood chipper helps make that point, as well.

In Fargo, the actor says more with his eyes than many actors do with an extensive monologue.

A Texas-sized asteroid is hurtling towards Earth in the 1998 film Armageddon. To prevent the planet's total annihilation, a group of deep-core drillers venture into space to make a large hole in the asteroid, insert a nuclear bomb, and blow the space rock to bits.

Stormare takes on the role of Lev Andropov, a somewhat-deranged Russian Cosmonaut whom drillers A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck) and Bear Curlene (Michael Clarke Duncan) encounter after docking at a space station. The character and his wild personality provide plenty of comic relief throughout the film. Stormare makes him seem more than a little crazy, then adds layers, proving his character has both scientific knowledge and incredible courage.

The beauty of the performance is in how he transforms Andropov from a complete goofball into, as the character himself describes, a “real Russian hero.”

In the Coen brothers' 1998 classic The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges plays Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski, a perpetual stoner whom two enforcers working for an adult-film producer mistake for another Lebowski. The enforcers ultimately rough the Dude up, and in the process, his beloved rug, which really ties the room together, is tragically damaged.

In his efforts to straighten out the situation, the Dude encounters Stormare's character, Uli Kunkel, a nihilist with a fondness for techno-pop. Speaking with a thick Eurotrash accent, the actor makes Kunkel simultaneously funny and fearsome. The character has a bleak attitude and a quirky way of making a point, as evidenced by the way he intimidates the Dude by throwing a marmot in his bathtub.

By emphasizing Kunkel's nihilism, Stormare adds a layer of dark wackiness to a story that's packed with odd people and crazy situations.