Sharlto Copley

District 9 arrived in 2009 with an unknown South African at the centre of it, playing a bureaucrat who hands out eviction notices to aliens. Wikus van de Merwe works because Copley plays him as a small man delighted with his lanyard: chirpy, cowardly, cruel by procedure rather than by intent. The film was nominated for an Academy Award, and he has never since been handed a part that good.

What he does have is a specific and slightly dangerous gift for accents and for men whose confidence has come loose from their competence. Kruger in Elysium is a mercenary played as a giggling wreck. Murdock in The A-Team is the only performance in that film pitched correctly. Stefan in Maleficent is written as a plot device and acted as a paranoid drunk. He is at his best when the character is repellent and having a wonderful time.

The years since have spread him thin. He took the title role in Chappie as a newborn robot, built entirely from voice and motion capture, which is the most complete acting job he has done since Wikus. Hardcore Henry has him reappearing as a different version of himself every few minutes, essentially an excuse for a dozen accents in one film. He ran two seasons of Powers on television, played the title role in Ted K, and turns up now as a reliable presence in other people's action films: the arms dealer in Free Fire, the fight promoter in Monkey Man, Leo Bonhart in a Witcher spin-off. The good ones use his instability. The rest just want the accent.