It must have been a bit of a challenge for Sharlto Copley to play the eagerly ambitious king Stefan in Disney’s “Maleficent.” Not for lack of talent, but more because in real life he is a sweet, humble and super smart man. Very much unlike his character! Get to know more about this South African actor in this exclusive interview with Entertainment Affair.

Pili Montilla for Entertainment Affair: Do you enjoy playing the bad guy?
Sharlto Copley: No, but I have an acting style where its kind of like I’m having fun with the characters. I’m not taking it 100% seriously with the character. I don’t think about it as an overtly serious job.
I don’t like playing villains; I like caricaturing real aspects of human behavior, which is what I’m doing with Stefan. Pushing the boundaries on those human behaviors is interesting and fun.

EA: “Maleficent” touches upon the issue of revenge. What have you ever done for revenge?
SC: I’ve been in business situations with people that have screwed me over in. But I never felt revenge, but I felt anger, pain, frustration. The closer to revenge would be succeeding in my own life.

EA: As a society, we think of ambition as a positive thing. But where do we draw the line between good ambition and bad ambition?
SC: That is the question “Maleficent” establishes. I related to that ambition that Stefan had. It’s a question of “when is it enough.” You know is it enough to have a billion dollars. Why do you need five billion?! Is it enough to make a couple of blockbuster movies? Or do you have to kill yourself in the attempts to make a bunch of other big movies. You know, when is it enough?

EA: You’ve based your career on portraying unique characters in crazy movies like Old Boy and District 9.
SC: Yes! I have. I’m very interested in human nature and if I can find a character that has some real human truth in it then that’s great and it’s just entertaining to watch.

Check out the performance of this talented and down to earth actor on Disney’s “Maleficent” out on May 30th.