Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#838
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Antonio Banderas represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 39 years in, and Antonio is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Antonio Banderas appears in 72 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Antonio. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, horror, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jesse V. Johnson, Halina Reijn, James Mangold and others, Antonio Banderas helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) as Puss in Boots (voice) · Tony (2026) as Chef · Journey to Bethlehem (2023) as Herod the Great
Career snapshot
Ranked #838 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
72
1987–2026
Career length
39 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Most frequent director
Robert Rodriguez
7 films together
Longest collaboration
7×
With Robert Rodriguez
Most common genre
Comedy
31 titles
Average runtime
1h 40m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
7.3 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Law of Desire — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.3
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Law of Desire.
Most productive era
2010s
26 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.32 films | 6.86 films | 6.83 films | 6.312 films | 7.34 films |
| Action | — | 6.74 films | 5.68 films | 5.88 films | 5.57 films |
| Thriller | 7.11 film | 6.72 films | 5.85 films | 6.09 films | 5.06 films |
| Comedy | 7.32 films | 6.03 films | 6.18 films | 6.111 films | 6.97 films |
| Crime | — | 6.72 films | 6.04 films | 5.74 films | 5.15 films |
| Romance | 7.11 film | 6.82 films | 6.64 films | 6.54 films | 5.71 film |
| Horror | — | 7.51 film | — | 7.12 films | 3.22 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1987Law of Desire
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Antonio Benítez.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2022Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
8.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Tony
The current state of the argument, as Chef.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
72 of 72 films
as Puss in Boots (voice)
Directed by Joel Crawford
as Dr. Robert Ledgard
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
as Salvador Mallo
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Puss in Boots (voice)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
Performance score8.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Puss in Boots (voice) gives Antonio Banderas a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Chef
Tony (2026)
Performance score8.2
Tony asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Chef is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dr. Robert Ledgard
The Skin I Live In (2011)
Performance score8.1
The Skin I Live In asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Robert Ledgard is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Salvador Mallo
Pain and Glory (2019)
Performance score8.0
Pain and Glory asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Salvador Mallo is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Puss in Boots (voice)
Start here. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the clearest statement of what Antonio Banderas does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Antonio at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Keeps the fantasy register of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Skin I Live In (2011)
Keeps the horror register of Interview with the Vampire but asks for a colder reading of it.
Pain and Glory (2019)
Same director as The Skin I Live In, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Tony (2026)
Keeps the drama register of Pain and Glory but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Rodriguez
Director
7 films together
Notably Desperado
Pedro Almodóvar
Director
6 films together
Notably The Skin I Live In
Martin Campbell
Director
2 films together
Notably The Mask of Zorro
Gary Trousdale
Director
2 films together
Notably Scared Shrekless
Chris Miller
Director
2 films together
Notably Puss in Boots
Mike Mitchell
Director
2 films together
Notably Shrek Forever After
Patrick Hughes
Director
2 films together
Notably Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
Alek Keshishian
Director
1 film together
Notably Madonna: Truth or Dare
Bille August
Director
1 film together
Notably The House of the Spirits
Jonathan Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably Philadelphia
Neil Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Interview with the Vampire
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably Assassins
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Four Rooms
Alan Parker
Director
1 film together
Notably Evita
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Play It to the Bone
John McTiernan
Director
1 film together
Notably The 13th Warrior
Michael Cristofer
Director
1 film together
Notably Original Sin
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together
Notably Femme Fatale
Julie Taymor
Director
1 film together
Notably Frida
Simon J. Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Far Far Away Idol
Andrew Adamson
Director
1 film together
Notably Shrek 2
Liz Friedlander
Director
1 film together
Notably Take the Lead
George Gallo
Director
1 film together
Notably My Mom's New Boyfriend
Mimi Leder
Director
1 film together
Notably Thick as Thieves
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Walt Dohrn
Director
1 film together
Notably Donkey's Christmas Shrektacular
Jonathan Dayton
Director
1 film together
Notably Ruby Sparks
Gabe Ibáñez
Director
1 film together
Notably Automata
Terrence Malick
Director
1 film together
Notably Knight of Cups
Patricia Riggen
Director
1 film together
Notably The 33
Paul Solet
Director
1 film together
Notably Bullet Head
Brian Goodman
Director
1 film together
Notably Black Butterfly
Isaac Florentine
Director
1 film together
Notably Acts of Vengeance
Alain Desrochers
Director
1 film together
Notably Security
Aleksandr Boguslavskiy
Director
1 film together
Notably Beyond the Edge
Dan Fogelman
Director
1 film together
Notably Life Itself
Stephen Gaghan
Director
1 film together
Notably Dolittle
Mariano Cohn
Director
1 film together
Notably Official Competition
Ruben Fleischer
Director
1 film together
Notably Uncharted
Joel Crawford
Director
1 film together
Notably Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Halina Reijn
Director
1 film together
Notably Babygirl
Jesse V. Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Above & Below
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Rodriguez
Director
7 films together · 5.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 7 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
DesperadoPedro Almodóvar
Director
6 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 6 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Skin I Live InGary Trousdale
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scared ShreklessChris Miller
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Puss in BootsPatrick Hughes
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Hitman's Wife's BodyguardMartin Campbell
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Mask of ZorroMike Mitchell
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Shrek Forever AfterJoel Crawford
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Puss in Boots: The Last WishJonathan Demme
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PhiladelphiaAndrew Adamson
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shrek 2Neil Jordan
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Interview with the VampireJulie Taymor
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FridaDan Fogelman
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Life ItselfJonathan Dayton
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ruby SparksRuben Fleischer
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnchartedLiz Friedlander
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Take the LeadBille August
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The House of the SpiritsJohn McTiernan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The 13th WarriorMariano Cohn
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Official CompetitionStephen Gaghan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DolittleJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Indiana Jones and the Dial of DestinyRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AssassinsPatricia Riggen
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The 33Alain Desrochers
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SecuritySimon J. Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Far Far Away IdolAlek Keshishian
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Madonna: Truth or DareBrian Goodman
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Black ButterflyBrian De Palma
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Femme FataleMichael Cristofer
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Original SinAlan Parker
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EvitaIsaac Florentine
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Acts of VengeanceMimi Leder
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Thick as ThievesGabe Ibáñez
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AutomataWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You Will Meet a Tall Dark StrangerQuentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Four RoomsWalt Dohrn
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Donkey's Christmas ShrektacularHalina Reijn
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabygirlTerrence Malick
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Knight of CupsAleksandr Boguslavskiy
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beyond the EdgeGeorge Gallo
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Mom's New BoyfriendRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Play It to the BonePaul Solet
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bullet HeadJesse V. Johnson
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Above & BelowSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Puss in Boots (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Shrek 2
as Puss in Boots (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Puss in Boots (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Journey to Bethlehem
as Herod the Great
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Puss in Boots (voice)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Antonio Banderas has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
39 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
31 catalogue titles in comedy, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Puss in Boots (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Skin I Live In
as Dr. Robert Ledgard
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Life Itself
as Vincent Saccione
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Skin I Live In
as Dr. Robert Ledgard
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Puss in Boots (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
as Renaldo
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Shrek 2
as Puss in Boots (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Shrek the Third
as Puss in Boots (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
Which Antonio Banderas performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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