Kevin Durand loves playing villains in 'Planet of the Apes,' 'Naked Gun' reboot

Kevin Durand has a countenance that tells a story and a resume teeming with villainous characters. His latest detestable turn is as a bad ape — the tyrannical simian king Proximus Caesar in Wes Ball's 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.'

Kevin Durand has a simple explanation for why he always gets cast as the bad guy.

“Just look at my face,” the actor says during an interview at a Toronto hotel. “People see me and they’re like, ‘Ahh!’”

The Thunder Bay, Ont., native has a countenance that tells a story and a resume teeming with villainous characters, including a psychotic neo-Nazi in 2006’s “Smokin’ Aces,” a trigger-happy cop in 2013’s “Fruitvale Station” and a possessed war captain in Netflix’s 2020 series “Locke & Key.”

His latest detestable turn is as a bad ape — the tyrannical simian king Proximus Caesar in Wes Ball’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which opens Friday. It’s the latest instalment in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise.

Being typecast as an antagonist suits the 50-year-old well. He’s always gravitated toward sinister roles, dating back to his early days as a Shakespeare-obsessed aspiring actor.

“I only wanted to play the bastards. I didn't want to play Hamlet or Romeo. I wanted to be Iago. I wanted to be Petruchio,” he says.

“There's something interesting about stepping outside yourself. I spend my whole day being a nice Canadian boy from Thunder Bay. And then all of a sudden, I have licence to just lean in and be evil? Awesome. That's therapy.”