Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#12
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Charlize Theron represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Charlize is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Charlize Theron appears in 54 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Charlize. The Odyssey is the clearest case: a film rated 8.9 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 adventure, drama, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Christopher Nolan, Baltasar Kormákur, Victoria Mahoney and others, Charlize Theron 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.
The Odyssey (2026) as Calypso · Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023) as Self - Guest · The Odyssey (2026) as Calypso
Career snapshot
Ranked #12 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
54
1996–2026
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.9
The Odyssey
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.4
The Odyssey
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
23 titles
Average runtime
1h 55m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
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
6.8
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
2020s
7.1 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Odyssey, Apex, Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Harmony — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.1
Across 15 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Cider House Rules, The Astronaut's Wife, Mighty Joe Young.
Most productive era
2000s
18 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.65 films | 6.811 films | 6.26 films | 8.91 film |
| Action | 6.31 film | 6.27 films | 6.75 films | 7.17 films |
| Thriller | 5.92 films | 6.16 films | 6.43 films | 7.12 films |
| Comedy | 6.33 films | — | 6.25 films | 7.43 films |
| Crime | 6.21 film | 6.48 films | 6.23 films | 7.12 films |
| Romance | — | 6.54 films | — | — |
| Horror | 7.61 film | — | 6.61 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Tina.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026The Odyssey
8.9 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
2026The Odyssey
The current state of the argument, as Calypso.
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.
54 of 54 films
as Calypso
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Imperator Furiosa
Directed by George Miller
as Calypso
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Self - Guest
Directed by Paul Miller
as Monkey / Mother (voice)
Directed by Travis Knight
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 67 titles · 77 total credits · active 1996–2026
Apex
2026 · Sasha · Producer
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Harmony
2026 · Actor
The Odyssey: The Making of an Epic
2026 · Self (archive footage)
The Odyssey
2026 · Calypso
Skip Intro
2026 · TV · Self - Guest
The Old Guard 2
2025 · Andromache of Scythia / Andy · Producer
The Studio
2025 · TV · Charlize Theron
High & Low – John Galliano
2024 · Self
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter
2024 · TV · Producer
Fast X
2023 · Cipher
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
2023 · Self - Guest
Murder Mystery 2
2023 · Executive Producer
Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York
2023 · TV · Executive Producer
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
2022 · Clea
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
2022 · Clea (archive footage) (uncredited)
The School for Good and Evil
2022 · Lady Lesso
F9
2021 · Cipher
The Addams Family 2
2021 · Morticia Addams (voice)
The Old Guard
2020 · Andromache of Scythia / Andy · Producer
Bombshell
2019 · Megyn Kelly · Producer
The Addams Family
2019 · Morticia Addams (voice) · Executive Producer
Murder Mystery
2019 · Executive Producer
Tully
2018 · Marlo Moreau · Producer
Gringo
2018 · Elaine Markinson · Producer
The defining work
#1
Calypso
The Odyssey (2026)
Performance score8.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Calypso gives Charlize Theron a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Imperator Furiosa
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Performance score8.2
Mad Max: Fury Road asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Imperator Furiosa is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Calypso
The Odyssey (2026)
Performance score8.0
The Odyssey asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Calypso is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self - Guest
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
Performance score8.0
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Guest 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 Calypso
Start here. The Odyssey is the clearest statement of what Charlize Theron does — accessible, 165 minutes, and rated 8.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Charlize 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.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Keeps the adventure register of The Odyssey but asks for a colder reading of it.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Keeps the adventure register of Mad Max: Fury Road but asks for a colder reading of it.
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
A deliberate change of key after Kubo and the Two Strings — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Odyssey (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John Herzfeld
Director
2 films together
Notably 2 Days in the Valley
F. Gary Gray
Director
2 films together
Notably The Fate of the Furious
Jason Reitman
Director
2 films together
Notably Tully
Conrad Vernon
Director
2 films together
Notably The Addams Family 2
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Odyssey
Tom Hanks
Director
1 film together
Notably That Thing You Do!
Taylor Hackford
Director
1 film together
Notably The Devil's Advocate
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Celebrity
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Mighty Joe Young
Rand Ravich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Astronaut's Wife
Lasse Hallström
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cider House Rules
John Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together
Notably Reindeer Games
Robert Redford
Director
1 film together
Notably The Legend of Bagger Vance
George Tillman Jr.
Director
1 film together
Notably Men of Honor
Luis Mandoki
Director
1 film together
Notably Trapped
Patty Jenkins
Director
1 film together
Notably Monster
Niki Caro
Director
1 film together
Notably North Country
Karyn Kusama
Director
1 film together
Notably Æon Flux
Stuart Townsend
Director
1 film together
Notably Battle in Seattle
Paul Haggis
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Valley of Elah
Peter Berg
Director
1 film together
Notably Hancock
John Hillcoat
Director
1 film together
Notably The Road
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Prometheus
Seth MacFarlane
Director
1 film together
Notably A Million Ways to Die in the West
George Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Mad Max: Fury Road
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Huntsman: Winter's War
Travis Knight
Director
1 film together
Notably Kubo and the Two Strings
Sean Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Face
David Leitch
Director
1 film together
Notably Atomic Blonde
Nash Edgerton
Director
1 film together
Notably Gringo
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Bombshell
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Director
1 film together
Notably The Old Guard
Justin Lin
Director
1 film together
Notably F9
Paul Feig
Director
1 film together
Notably The School for Good and Evil
Brad Baruh
Director
1 film together
Notably Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Sam Raimi
Director
1 film together
Notably Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Paul Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably Fast X
Kevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together
Notably High & Low – John Galliano
Victoria Mahoney
Director
1 film together
Notably The Old Guard 2
Baltasar Kormákur
Director
1 film together
Notably Apex
Anne Hathaway
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Matt Damon
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Elliot Page
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Jamie Harris
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Tom Holland
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Robert Pattinson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Himesh Patel
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
John Leguizamo
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Travis Scott
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Corey Hawkins
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Jarreth J. Merz
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Niko Nicotera
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The OdysseyF. Gary Gray
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
The Fate of the FuriousConrad Vernon
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
The Addams Family 2Jason Reitman
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
TullyJohn Herzfeld
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
2 Days in the ValleyPaul Miller
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + LoveGeorge Miller
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mad Max: Fury RoadTravis Knight
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kubo and the Two StringsTaylor Hackford
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Devil's AdvocateGeorge Tillman Jr.
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Men of HonorSam Raimi
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessNiki Caro
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
North CountryLouis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fast XPatty Jenkins
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MonsterBrad Baruh
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Old GuardLasse Hallström
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cider House RulesBaltasar Kormákur
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ApexPaul Feig
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The School for Good and EvilJustin Lin
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
F9John Hillcoat
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The RoadJay Roach
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BombshellPaul Haggis
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 Valley of ElahTom Hanks
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
That Thing You Do!Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PrometheusRobert Redford
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Legend of Bagger VancePeter Berg
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HancockDavid Leitch
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Atomic BlondeCedric Nicolas-Troyan
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Huntsman: Winter's WarStuart Townsend
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Battle in SeattleRon Underwood
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mighty Joe YoungKevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
High & Low – John GallianoLuis Mandoki
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TrappedSeth MacFarlane
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Million Ways to Die in the WestWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CelebrityVictoria Mahoney
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Old Guard 2Nash Edgerton
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GringoJohn Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reindeer GamesKaryn Kusama
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Æon FluxRand Ravich
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Astronaut's WifeSean Penn
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last FaceSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
8 wins · 2 nominations
1 win · 2 nominations · latest 2004
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win · latest 2006
as Actor
1 win · latest 2009
as Actor
1 win · latest 2008
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Odyssey
as Calypso
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Odyssey
as Calypso
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Odyssey
as Calypso
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
as Clea (archive footage) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Odyssey
as Calypso
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. Charlize Theron has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #376 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.9 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Drama, Screen presence | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2026–2026 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Calypso — The Odyssey | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | The Odyssey | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Adventure Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Anne Hathaway · Matt Damon
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
30 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
23 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
The Odyssey
as Calypso
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Devil's Advocate
as Mary Ann Lomax
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Odyssey
as Calypso
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
In the Valley of Elah
as Detective Emily Sanders
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Odyssey
as Calypso
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Odyssey
as Calypso
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
That Thing You Do!
as Tina
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Odyssey
as Calypso
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which Charlize Theron 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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