In the end, we are to believe that even though Leonidas died, Xerxes failed because he “has betrayed a fatal flaw: hubris. Brazillian actor Rodrigo Santoro’s romance with Sarah, played by Laura Linney, sadly came to nothing in the film but since then he has played a number of big parts.
I’d cry, throw on a gold lamé loincloth and slaughter a couple hundred Greeks - anything to keep him from touching me again. Leonidas does not shiver - but I would have. “Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet, if you will but kneel at mine,” he practically moans through his metallic lips. of 300, directed by Zack Snyder, the movie-watching public was introduced to a twenty-first-century re-imagining of Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro. How does he do it? By walking up directly behind him and placing his gold, manicured hands on Leonidas’ shoulders. Like some sort of handsome Gollum, he uses his graceful giant stature to demand attention.Īnd although Hollywood has tried to position the Brazilian Santoro as a heartthrob in movies like “What To Expect When You’re Expecting,” he’ll always be a menace to me.Ĭase in point? The scene from the first film in which Leonidas meets Xerxes, who attempts to persuade Leonidas to betray Sparta and join his ranks. The androgynous, bass-voiced man, draped in elaborate gold jewelry, revels in mysticism. He’s not even the main bad guy in the sequel - Eva Green takes that honor as femme fatale Artemisia - but he’s still there and terrifying as ever: The movie opens, after all, with Xerxes making sure Gerard Butler’s body is good and dead by striking a blow to the carcass.īut it’s not Xerxes’ deadly handmanship with a labrys that haunts me.
While others may spend their nights staring at the ceiling, quivering at the thought of Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees murdering them for sport, I am kept up by thoughts of the 7-foot-tall Persian “god-king,” played with aggressive creepiness by Rodrigo Santoro.Īnd now, Xerxes is back. After viewing the highly stylized fantasy-action film, which sees Gerard Butler as King Leonidas leading a charge of 300 Spartan soldiers against the advancing Persians, I immediately began having nightmares of the movie’s villain, Xerxes.Īnd I still do.
Who played xerxes in the movie 300 series#
Rodrigo played the male lead in the Hulu series 'Reprisal' for producer Warren Littlefield. In the movie Xerxes the Persian king, wants to conquor Sparta. Rodrigo Santoro is a world-renown actor who starred alongside Academy Award Winner Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, and Geoffrey Wright in the hit HBO series 'Westworld,' created by Jonah Nolan and produced by JJ Abrams. I was 16 years old when “300” arrived in theaters in 2006, but I might as well have been 6. 300 is about a spartan king names Leonidis.