The characterization and the actors' portrayals of those characters also affects how the movie's message is perceived by the audience. In this area, it is most problematic that Mickey and Mallory are portrayed more favorably than any of the traditional "good guys" like the cop Scagnetti and the warden McClusky. Mickey, played by Woody Harralson, is charming and charismatic, but retains the viewer's sympathy through their awareness of his abusive past and the traumatic suicide of his father. He kills the Indian in response to the vulnerability he feels through the Indian bringing up all his childhood memories in his dreams. It's hard to completely hate Mickey, despite what he does.

The same applies to Mallory. One of the first things we learn about her is that she was sexually abused by her father, drawing sympathy for her and admiration perhaps for Mickey for rescuing her from this environment. Mallory gets more sympathy from the viewer when she is yelled at by or treated badly by Mickey. Being separated from Mickey makes her virtually insane, if you don't consider her to have been insane beforehand.

Scagnetti and McClusky, the other two major characters, are both dispicable characters, which certainly doesn't aid one in condemning Mickey and Mallory. Scagnetti is a murderer, too, strangling a prostitute right before he goes to arrest Mickey and Mallory. He tries to take advantage of Mallory in her cell while no one else is around, and when she attacks him, he brutally sprays her with his pepper spray when she was already restrained. McClusky is not as overtly horrible as Scagnetti, but has no redeeming qualities. His main concern about the riot in his prison is that it is being broadcast live on television, not that so many people are dying.

To give Mickey and Mallory redeeming qualities that no one else in the film possess is a dangerous thing because this can be construed yet again as Stone's suggestion that murderers are cool and that Mickey and Mallory are justified.