Guy Pearce always seemed like the odd man out among the Australian actors who became Hollywood leading men at the turn of the century – slighter, less conventionally rugged than Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, or Eric Bana. Even Heath Ledger was initially typecast as the kind of swashbuckling rogue with the dimpled smile that Australians have been playing since Errol Flynn cast the mould. But there was never anything twinkle-eyed about Pearce. Hot off Memento, Disney offered him the title role in The Count of Monte Cristo. He turned it down – and asked to play the villain instead.

Pearce’s characters are variously priggish (L.A. Confidential), passive (Ravenous), and wracked by indecision (The Proposition). He can do dashing, but the charming façade always drops away to reveal a bully (The King’s Speech, The Brutalist). At this point the most surprising thing Pearce could do is play the hero – something that the new Australian film Inside exploits to keep us guessing.