Mason Verger: Who He Is and Who Plays Him

Mason Verger is a rich, badly disfigured man who survived an attack by Hannibal Lecter, and he is the villain who sets the plot of Hannibal (2001) in motion. He is credited in the film as Mason Verger, and he comes from the novel Hannibal by Thomas Harris.

Gary Oldman plays him. The Hannibal (2001) cast listing on TMDB places Oldman third, behind Anthony Hopkins as Lecter and Julianne Moore as Clarice Starling, although the film itself gave him no on-screen credit. Ridley Scott directed the film, which reached US theaters on February 9, 2001, with a budget of $87 million.

What separates Verger from the other villains of the saga is the way he works. He has money, he has contacts at the Justice Department, and he has one goal: to get Lecter captured so that he can torture him. In that sense he is a villain built from patience and bank balances rather than from a knife, which is an unusual shape for a Hannibal Lecter story.

The NBC series Hannibal, which is television and not part of the film saga, gave the role to other actors: Michael Pitt and later Joe Anderson both played Verger there. On the big screen, Hannibal (2001) is the only film that credits him. He is not among the top 15 billed cast of Manhunter (1986), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Red Dragon (2002) or Hannibal Rising (2007). For the full list of roles, see Hannibal characters.

Mason Verger is tied to Lecter by an attack, to Starling by a shared pursuit, and to Inspector Renaldo Pazzi by a reward. Each link shows a different side of him.

With Hannibal Lecter the link is a grudge. Verger survived what Lecter did to him, which makes him Lecter's only living victim. So, why did Hannibal go after Mason Verger? In the film he did not, at first. Verger came first, as the man who wants revenge, and Lecter turned on him only once Verger's men seized him and took him to the estate.

With Clarice Starling, played by Julianne Moore in this film, Verger shares a target but not a goal. Starling is searching for Lecter on her own, and she tracks Verger's plan and goes to his estate to find him. Verger wants to torture Lecter, while she wants to find him.

With Pazzi, played by Giancarlo Giannini, the link is money. Pazzi hopes to collect Verger's reward and pays for it with his life when Lecter learns what he is doing. Paul Krendler, Starling's corrupt superior, played by Ray Liotta, sits elsewhere in the story, but Verger's pressure on Lecter's case runs through the same Justice Department world.

In my opinion, Verger's best moments are the ones where the film lets his money do the acting, and the three that stand out are the reward, the estate and the boars.

The first is the reward that pulls in Pazzi. It could be argued that this is the cleverest thing Verger does, because he reaches a police inspector in Florence through money alone. It also sets up the best scene for Pazzi, who is smart enough to find Lecter and not smart enough to keep him.

The second is the capture at the estate. Verger's men seize Lecter and take him there. That being said, the payoff works because the audience already suspects Lecter is not going to stay a prisoner.

The third is the boars. Perhaps the most fitting thing about the ending is that Verger is undone by the animals he bred himself. It is a cruel exit, but it follows the rules the film has already set up.

If you want more of this style of villain, the closest match in the saga is probably Jame Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs, whose story you can read under Buffalo Bill. Verger is the slower, richer cousin.