It’s never been easy being bad, but Cam Gigandet does it so well. Playing the role of the arrogant, underground fighter in the film Never Back Down, Gigandet channels the spirit of every prep-school pretty boy and trust-fund meathead you’ve ever met in this Karate Kid for the twenty-first century. With his Brad Pitt-styled physique (carved from a commitment to the gym and Krav Maga, a brutal martial art) and his mischievous grin, perhaps it’s easy to pigeonhole Gigandet. But the laid-back and confident 25-year-old says that he enjoys exploring roles on the darker side.

“I’ve done this bad-guy role a lot. I’m drawn to playing someone with an edge,” he says, “someone with something broken inside of him; whether he views the world in a different way, or there’s something askew within the guy. When you have that, there’s so much freedom to do things that aren’t straight down the line.”

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