In film, television, books, etc., etc., do you tend to root for the villain or the hero?
If you're a writer, which do you prefer to write?
If you were an actor, which role would you want?

I think many actors relish playing “the bad guy”. Or girl. I once read that Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing on Dallas) loved it when people would (mock) boo him when he walked into a restaurant. Do I root for them? It depends on from what point of view I can see the character from. There was a show on a few years ago called The Shield. Michael Chiklis (The Commish) reinvented himself as Det. Vic Mackey. About the only thing that separated him from the people he put in handcuffs was his badge. Still, many fans wanted him to get away with it. Same thing with Tony Soprano.

There are times when the hero is sort of an anti-hero and I want them to get away with it. Like the main character on Mad Men, I want him to get away with his affairs...Or in "The Town" I wanted Ben Affleck's character to get the girl and pull off the bank robbery.

I usually support the hero, but if it's written in such a way that the author wants me to support the villain then I usually do.

It depends, there are times when I think we're deliberately supposed to like the villain because we know they're not going to win, like the Kurgan in Highlander, he was a funny bastard, or the Joker in Batman, it's like we're still going to have this hero but there'll be another villain so might as well make the most of the one we currently have.

In movies like Bonnie and Clyde we know by all reasoning they're the bad guys, they're the outlaws, they're robbing banks and they're killing people, but they're also the ones we want to see get away and make it out alive, not the unimportant lawmen whose names nobody even remembers.

I don't usually like the murderous, black-hearted villain types who are marked for inevitable death because they're too one note. I prefer the dark, retaliatory character who is more cynical/sarcastic and does nefarious things out of gluttony or because they feel they have been wronged, but aren't completely totally evil.

If I were an actor, I would probably want to play the villain. But when it comes to reading or viewing fiction, I prefer a villain who is more 'gray' than totally dark.