I'm surprised nobody mentions how effeminately he played his role. I'm mean, he was very effective in showing torment and sadism on the slow burn, but his gestures, mannerisms and comments just scream QUEER old man: the way he held his pastry or sandwich was fem. The way he spoke of John "My treasure' was just odd and queer. My daughter noticed it right away, especially when his voice trembled.
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I don't know if you're using the word "queer" as in, homosexual or queer as in he's just an odd person. But either way, that was actually one of the first observations I made while watching the film. It reminded me a lot of Patrick Magee's performance in A Clockwork Orange. The constant trembling, invading personal space of other characters, talking in stilted dialogue, the whole lot of it was quite off-putting. But in a good way. He did a good job with the performance. Every scene he shared with Anthony Hopkins was quite good. I really don't understand the whole "fem" thing you're bringing up. He was playing a disturbed old man who took pleasure in making a profit out of John Merrick's pain. I would expect him to have a mental problem or two on the side of that.