What movie villain did you fall in love with?

Not necessarily attraction-wise, but could be. Or their charisma, performance- or being the most deliciously evil and entertaining part of a movie. Maybe out-cooling the paint-by-numbers hero. Or maybe you just walked out of the theater believing they must be a terrible person in real life, and were awed by the performance.

My personal favorite is at least semi-obscure(?)

But it’s Joan Cusack (Debbie Jellinsky) from Addams Family Values. I know. 12 year-old me wanted to see it because of a severe crush on Wednesday (Ricci). But Cusack stole the show for me. It was a silly movie obviously, but the way she played the ‘thin veil of over pleasantness’ over a psychotic core was so fun for me. She plays a caricature in that she clearly had deep loathing of the family right beneath the surface, but that was obviously her intent in performance. Something about the pretty, psychotic, bratty Cusack had me captivating and drew my attention away from Ricci, no small feat.

I thought of this a week ago because my daughter screamed at me and said I brought her the wrong doll (she’s like a young Cusack) and randomly I said, ‘I don’t want that doll, I want a Mal-i-bu Bar-Bie! and my wife laughed because even though we have never discussed this movie she immediately got the reference.

Anyway, I know from other posts there will be much more nuanced takes from Oscar worthy flicks, but for me my first love of tv villains started with her. Plus I wouldn’t be able to bear it if I asked this question with another example and someone else besides me said, ‘what about Debbie?’