Ronnie Gene Blevins has one of “those faces”. You know, the one you know you should know from somewhere, yet you’re not entirely sure where from. With over a decade in show business he’s played bit parts in shows like “ER”, “The Young and the Restless”, has had recurring roles in cable hits like “True Blood” and “Southland”, and eventually made his way to feature films in blockbusters like “The Dark Knight Rises”. Blevins is perhaps the definition of a “working actor”, someone so in love with his craft that he has no problem exploring different genres, styles and mediums, and you get a sense of that immediately once you start talking to him. “I was up all night shooting” he says over the phone as I talk to him at, what other actors would think of as an unholy, eight in the morning.

I apologize about keeping him up longer than I should - he’s probably tired having been in shoots for both the TV show “Navy Street” and a movie - but he seems to get energy out of talking about his work. His instantly friendly, “oh, don’t worry man”, also makes it easy for you not to feel guilty for long. This same charm is what makes him so compelling to watch in David Gordon Green’s “Joe”, in which he plays his biggest part to date; the film’s villain, Willie-Russell, a mischievous creature who terrorizes a young boy (played by Tye Sheridan) and his unwilling protector (played by Nicolas Cage).

Blevins take hold of the screen to portray one of 2014’s most indelible characters, a menacing madman who seems to be doing evil things for the sake of keeping himself entertained, the actor who plays him on the other side, couldn’t have been friendlier if he tried...

To call Willie-Russell insane would be sort of an understatement. What drew you to this character?

(Laughs) First of all I heard Nick (Nicolas Cage) was going to play the leading role and Tye would also be in it, and I was already a David fan of course. It was also such a pure raw story about the south, and I come from the south, but have been living in LA for 14 years and there are few opportunities to get involved in stories for and by the south. David is from the south too. So it was a nice homecoming, going back to Austin.

Willie-Russell has shades of classic villains like Dennis Hopper in “Blue Velvet” and Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” in the fact that you can’t explain why they’re evil and it makes them scarier. How do you play off on that in order to avoid turning your character into a caricature?

A lot of that came from the way in which David directs, he’s incorporating a lot of non actors in the cast. So from the beginning, he has us playing off against these very natural performers. David tells a story in documentarian fashion, but even with that, Willie-Russell was more over the top than the other characters, I believe he’s overcompensating, Willie has insecurities all over the place and uses his machismo to try to make up for the things he lacks.

Willie’s lines are so effective because they show how disconnected he is from the world. Did you read the novel before working in the film and how much did you stick to Gary Hawkins’ screenplay? Was there any room at all for improvisation?

The script that Gary [Hawkins] wrote, was very true to the novel, so we had some dialogue lifted verbatim and remaining very true to the novel. But while preserving the integrity of the novel, David allowed us quite a bit of room for improvisation. We could do dialogue from the novel, we could come up with our own bits...you gotta be on your game with David, because he’s a great director and you just won’t have fun if you don’t bring everything you got to his movies.

Can you talk about that scene where you fight Tye Sheridan? He’s giving a speech about “the windshield”, and all you keep thinking is “come on Willie, he’s just a kid”. Were there moments when you felt guilty about what Willie was doing?

I liked playing scenes like that. It’s tough to play someone as dark and insidious as Willie-Russell, so I also think that [he] certainly gets what’s coming to [him] by both Tye and Nicolas Cage later in the film. I recognize that films have antagonists and someone has to play them and it might as well be me.

What was your favorite of David’s films before working with him?

David is a very smart guy, he inspires great performances, so I think “Snow Angels” was my favorite, because I am a big fan of Sam Rockwell and he is great in it. But all of David’s movies are pretty great, I am a big fan of his broad comedies like “Pineapple Express” too.

Willie-Russell is a character who moves in nature as if it was his ally. We have some scenes in the film that are terrifying because you just down know where he will pop out from to do some evil. In a sense he’s an almost mythical creature in that aspect...

I like your interpretations, because yeah, Willie is such a “snake in the grass” kind of character. Being down in the South - even though everything was shot within an hour and a half ratio of Austin- it still was very much the South. The location by itself creates the playground, the world and says that we could be anywhere in the South. We tried to stay away from landmarks, you could think it was Texas, Mississippi... David created the playground, and then the environment did enforce Willie, he’s a snake in the grass, popping up when you don't want him to, but his cowardice speaks more than his prowess.

We always see you play villains, would you like to be in a comedy some day?

(Laughs) Sure, I mean I’ve been in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and what not, and by nature when you’re playing villains you have less parameters and less rules, you get more room to explore pathology and explore extremes. You’re exercising the extreme which is what comedy does too.

You wrote and starred in “American Cowslip”. Have you been doing any writing since?

Writing was such a long arduous process for me, I haven't been writing and I want to but I’m waiting for the right moment. I’d certainly like to settle down and wait, as silly as it sounds, for the inspiration.

You’ve been in pretty much every important TV show over the last decade and by now people see you and go “hey, I know you from somewhere”. Is that common? How do you feel about losing your anonymity?

It’s cool, it happens infrequently enough that it still catches me off guard, but I mean I’m grateful for my work, I understand that part of the process and also that by being recognized I’ll continue to work with some talented and good people. When people recognize you it drives up demand and I mean, validation is always fun.

I’m also asking because you’re pretty active on Twitter where you get a sense that you actually enjoy interacting with people who see your movies and wanna talk about them. How important do you think social media is for actors?

I appreciate it, it always blew me away how an actor could shun it, why are you doing movies if you don’t want this attention? The consumers are going to be part of the public and a byproduct of this will be acknowledgement. I find it pretty strange to become an actor if you’re not willing to accept the acknowledgement for the work, to me actors who say that they don’t want attention, isn’t right, it feels like false humility, something about it doesn’t fit.

Your first credit is from Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.:Artificial Intelligence” in which you played a robot, and now you’re co-starring with Oscar winners. Has your career so far been everything you expected it to be?

(Pause) Yeah man, I think so, I never really knew what my trajectory would be, I knew I loved doing what I do and I’m continually surprised with how it’s gone. I’m really very grateful.

"Joe" is now available on demand and will be out on Blu-ray and DVD on June 17.