Mark Strong talks about playing Sinestro in Green Lantern

British actor Mark Strong has all but mastered the art of nuanced villainy (and wigs), but he’s doing it big-time and with intergalactic style in GREEN LANTERN.

Strong is playing Sinestro in DC’s first major non-Bat/Super comic adaptation. In case you haven’t read any of DC’s superhero or can’t decipher comic character names, Sinestro is an alien and Lantern Corps member who trains Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) in the use of the power ring, but things eventually turn sour.

Talking to USA Today, Strong breaks it down: “For anybody who’s familiar with the Green Lantern and the origin story, the film closely follows the early comics. Sinestro starts out as Hal Jordan’s mentor, slightly suspicious and not sure of him because obviously Hal is the first human being who’s made into a Green Lantern. He’s certainly very strict and certainly unsure of the wisdom of Hal becoming a Green Lantern.”

“He is a military guy but isn’t immediately bad. It’s the kind of person he is that lends himself to becoming bad over the course of the comics being written, but initially he’s quite a heroic figure.”

Strong also says he wants to do justice to the original concept for Sinestro, who was based on actor David Niven (while Hal Jordan was modeled after Errol Flynn), and will be wearing special contact lenses for his extraterrestrial eyes. No word on the magenta skin.

The 3D movie is currently underway, with director Martin Campbell (CASINO ROYALE) and star Ryan Reynolds, along with Strong, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett and Blake Lively.