Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1717
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ben Whishaw works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ben Whishaw appears in 30 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ben. Paddington Meets The Queen is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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, fantasy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Alex Garland, Thomas Hescott, Rory Fleck-Byrne and others, Ben Whishaw 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.
Paddington Meets The Queen (2022) as Paddington (voice) · Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille · No Time to Die (2021) as Q
Career snapshot
Ranked #1717 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
30
2004–2028
Career length
24 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Paddington Meets The Queen
Average Nutevio score
5.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Paddington Meets The Queen
Most frequent director
Sam Mendes
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Sam Mendes
Most common genre
Drama
19 titles
Average runtime
1h 39m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
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
6.3
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
2000s
6.7 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The International, Brideshead Revisited, I'm Not There — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.7
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The International, Brideshead Revisited, I'm Not There.
Most productive era
2020s
15 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.84 films | 6.66 films | 4.79 films |
| Action | 6.31 film | 6.93 films | 3.62 films |
| Thriller | 6.62 films | 6.93 films | 6.42 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.63 films | 6.44 films |
| Crime | 6.93 films | — | — |
| Romance | 6.31 film | 7.01 film | 6.31 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2004Layer Cake
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Sidney.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2022Paddington Meets The Queen
7.5 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
2028Elden Ring
The current state of the argument.
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.
30 of 30 films
as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Directed by Tom Tykwer
as Paddington Brown (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Q
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Paddington (voice)
Paddington Meets The Queen (2022)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Paddington (voice) gives Ben Whishaw a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Performance score8.0
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Paddington Brown (voice)
Paddington in Peru (2024)
Performance score7.4
Paddington in Peru asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Paddington Brown (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Q
No Time to Die (2021)
Performance score7.4
No Time to Die asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Q 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 Paddington (voice)
Start here. Paddington Meets The Queen is the clearest statement of what Ben Whishaw does — accessible, 2 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ben 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.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
A deliberate change of key after Paddington Meets The Queen — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
No Time to Die (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Perfume: The Story of a Murderer — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Good Boy (2023)
A deliberate change of key after No Time to Die — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Paddington in Peru (2024)
Same director as Good Boy, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Tom Tykwer
Director
2 films together
Notably Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Sam Mendes
Director
2 films together
Notably Skyfall
Matthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together
Notably Layer Cake
Todd Haynes
Director
1 film together
Notably I'm Not There
Julian Jarrold
Director
1 film together
Notably Brideshead Revisited
Lilly Wachowski
Director
1 film together
Notably Cloud Atlas
Terry Gilliam
Director
1 film together
Notably The Zero Theorem
Sarah Gavron
Director
1 film together
Notably Suffragette
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Heart of the Sea
Rob Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Mary Poppins Returns
Armando Iannucci
Director
1 film together
Notably The Personal History of David Copperfield
Aneil Karia
Director
1 film together
Notably Surge
Ella Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Fortunate
Cary Joji Fukunaga
Director
1 film together
Notably No Time to Die
Sarah Polley
Director
1 film together
Notably Women Talking
Alice Englert
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Behaviour
Rory Fleck-Byrne
Director
1 film together
Notably In Heat
Thomas Hescott
Director
1 film together
Notably The Gay Collection | Volume I | Presented by Shortz!
Alex Garland
Director
1 film together
Notably Elden Ring
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Sam Mendes
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
SkyfallTom Tykwer
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Perfume: The Story of a MurdererCary Joji Fukunaga
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Time to DieSarah Gavron
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SuffragetteLilly Wachowski
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cloud AtlasMatthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Layer CakeSarah Polley
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Women TalkingRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Heart of the SeaRob Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mary Poppins ReturnsTodd Haynes
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I'm Not ThereArmando Iannucci
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 Personal History of David CopperfieldJulian Jarrold
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brideshead RevisitedTerry Gilliam
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Zero TheoremAneil Karia
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SurgeAlice Englert
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad BehaviourAlex Garland
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Elden RingThomas Hescott
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Gay Collection | Volume I | Presented by Shortz!Rory Fleck-Byrne
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In HeatElla Jones
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss FortunateSix 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
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Suffragette
as Sonny Watts
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The International
as Renee
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Paddington Meets The Queen
as Paddington (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. Ben Whishaw 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
24 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
19 catalogue titles in drama, 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
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
No Time to Die
as Q
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Passages
as Martin
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The International
as Renee
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
No Time to Die
as Q
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
No Time to Die
as Q
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Lobster
as Limping Man
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Ungentle
as Narrator (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
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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