Today, a preview of this weekend’s New York Times Magazine’s annual Hollywood Issue is available online. Vamps, Crooks and Killers features 13 of this year’s great performers trying on the black hat and impersonating specific icons of unpleasantness or tapping into the primal fears that remain a potent source of pleasure and discomfort at the movies. The ability of these actors to disturb us with a gesture, a change of expression or a simple stare only serves to make us like them more.

On the proper way to play a femme fatale: ‘‘The key was the kind of sweet flirtation — to look at the camera in an almost vampiric way.’’

Watch the video of Kirsten HERE!

Credit: New York Times Magazine