Charles Parnell

Charles Parnell's Hodges conducts himself as though a difficult meeting is still his to manage. In David Fincher's The Killer (2023), he plays the lawyer who takes bookings for Michael Fassbender's hitman, with a confidence the situation does not justify. We laughed at that misplaced assurance, because Parnell makes Hodges seem satisfied with his own handling of things. There is no need to make him an extravagant villain; the professional manner is enough.

The casting has often asked him to be the person whose instructions everyone else follows. Television established the pattern: Police Chief Derek Frye in All My Children (2005–2008), then Master Chief Russell Jeter in The Last Ship (2014–2018). The wider recognition came with Rear Admiral Solomon 'Warlock' Bates in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), alongside Tom Cruise. He prepared by observing serving officers directly. That is a useful approach to parts which can otherwise amount to a rank and an order to get moving.

Pariah (2011), in which he plays Arthur, offers an alternative to the chain of command. The father carries resentment alongside his authority, giving Parnell something less tidy to play. We would welcome more parts that allow those feelings to complicate his accustomed competence, rather than simply relying on him to look capable of taking charge. The reservation is about the work he is given: a succession of senior men can make a capable supporting actor seem more predictable than he needs to be.

Fincher gives his supporting cast a scene apiece, and Parnell has to establish Hodges within that limit. Tilda Swinton's Expert gets the better-written passage; the film also has less beneath its careful construction than we would like. Parnell's contribution is smaller, but the lawyer's complacency gives us something recognisably human to watch among the hitman's rules. Start with The Killer for a compact example of what he does, rather than a film that gives him much room.