A Likable Villain

“I’ve done the bad guy a few times,” says Glenn Plummer, who turns in an electrifying performance as troubled teen-age comic-book aficionado descending into madness in Casey Kurtti’s “Three Ways Home” at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

In the film “Colors,” Plummer played a gang member. In “The Women of Brewster Place,” he was Lonette McKee’s rapist. And there was a recurring role on “L.A. Law” as a two-time cop-killer.

“But I’ve also been able to do some nice things,” the actor says. “I played a dope dealer with a conscience on ‘China Beach.’ And on ‘War Stories’ (HBO), I played a Tennessee youth who’s wounded in the war--a very bright, bubbly fellow. Of course, he dies at the end.”

It’s something Plummer’s characters have a tendency to do. “It’s true,” the actor, 27, says with a laugh. “Father Clements Story,” “China Beach,” “L.A. Law,”--they all died.”

The Northern California native credits first director Oji Blackston “with teaching me everything I know about acting-- because he knew me . Up till then, I was studying, but I hadn’t auditioned for anything. I was still thinking, ‘Well this might be something I could do--or maybe not.’ ”

Nowadays, the aspirations are slightly higher. “If I had my way,” Plummer says cheerfully, “I’d like to have a long and illustrious career. And then I’d open a school for, say, 5- to 15-year-olds, and teach cultural anthropology: Give the kids a better look at people--and maybe erase some of the prejudice that exists in our world today.

“I don’t want to sound like a radical. I don’t think loving is a radical thing at all; it’s what my mother taught me. I think everyone should be taught it--to the point where it’s almost like a religion. To the point where I can walk down the street and a woman sees me and doesn’t grab her purse and take a few steps away from me. In my school, you’d learn how to trust people. I don’t think that’s a bad goal. And it’s something I can work on my entire life.”