Payne trained at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and was identified, in the late 1980s, with the "Brit Pack" of rising young British actors.
In an interview with Impact (magazine) in 2001, Payne claimed that a crocodile from the play Peter Pan shouted that it would eat his brother and then proceeded to run upstage.
Others included Jonathan Pryce, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh, and Fiona Shaw.
In 1980 the Principal of RADA, Hugh Cruttwell, selected a scene from an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, which Payne co-wrote with Paul McGann, to be performed in front of Queen Elizabeth II, in one of her rare visits to the academy.
Payne played Les, a member of an East End gang intent on gaining revenge against the rival Hoxton Mob for the slaying of one of their number.
Payne played a psychotic[19] "pompous and pathetic racist"[16] named Flikker, who participated in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.
One reviewer argued that Payne was "the only actor to walk off Absolute Beginners with his reputation not only intact but enhanced" and that his portrayal of Flikker "was a headbutt of reality in a fantasmagoria of overkill.
[21] In the same year Payne appeared in the film Solarbabies along with fellow British performer Alexei Sayle as filthy bounty hunters named Dogger and Malice.
Payne said of his and Sayle's performances in Vogue that "the old image of an English arch-villain – Boris Karloff, that sort of thing, is turned upside down.
[22] In 1988, Payne appeared as Eddy in the Steven Berkoff-directed play, Greek (a retelling of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex), at the Wyndham's Theatre.
Martin Hoyle, writing for The Independent, stated that Payne's "Eddy is vital, intelligent and physically disciplined in the best Berkoff style".
[31] In 1990 Payne appeared in the music video for Neil Young's song "Over and Over", directed by Julien Temple, as a Stanley Kowalski-esque character.
[33] In 1992, Payne was cast in his best-known role, opposite Wesley Snipes, as a "notorious terrorist and hijacker",[34] with a steely, demonic nerve,[35] named Charles Rane, in Passenger 57.
[40] Julius Marshall stated that Payne was "ideal for his role: charming, dangerous – the kind of evil genius you love to hate".
[41] The Star Tribune stated that "Bruce Payne makes a splendid psychopath, consistently stealing scenes from the likes of Wesley Snipes and Elizabeth Hurley throughout Passenger 57".
Joseph Savitski, who reviewed the film for Beyond Hollywood, stated, "Payne is masterful as Detective Garou, a seductive and evil villain with arrogance and confidence to spare.
[44] In 1995, Payne played a "rogue FBI agent"[45] named Karl Savak in director Kurt Wimmer's One Tough Bastard.
[49] A reviewer for Trash City stated that "Endgame is pretty good, largely thanks to Bruce Payne's efforts as the bad guy, who is right up there with Clancy Brown's original decapitator", the Kurgan.
[50] Marke Andrews, writing for The Vancouver Sun, stated that Payne provided the "focal point" in the film and that he dived "into his role with gusto".
[51] Cherriece Wright, who reviewed the film for The Dispatch, stated that it contained "brilliant performances by Christopher Lambert and Bruce Payne".
Wright stated that Payne "delivers a great performance as Jacob Kell blending smoothly the malicious vindictiveness of the embittered immortal with a sarcastic wit that provides needed humor".
One reviewer said that "Bruce Payne (Damodar) as Profion's nefarious assistant in his power-hungry schemes was the stand-out performance of all the actors in the film.
[63] In 2006, he helped to launch the National Youth Theatre's 50th-anniversary programme along with Sir Ian McKellen, Timothy Spall, Diana Quick, Paula Wilcox, Jonathan Wrather, newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy, and Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
[69] One reviewer of the film gave it eight out of ten and stated that Payne "nearly steals the movie with a plum role as the icy head of British black ops".