Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2379
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Christina Applegate 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.
Christina Applegate appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Christina. The Book of Life 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 comedy, adventure, music. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Kevin Tent, Jon Lucas, John Francis Daley and others, Christina Applegate 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 Book of Life (2014) as Mary Beth (voice) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) as Veronica Corningstone · Mars Attacks! (1996) as Sharona
Career snapshot
Ranked #2379 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1995–2017
Career length
22 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Book of Life
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Book of Life
Most frequent director
Adam McKay
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Adam McKay
Most common genre
Comedy
21 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
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
1990s
6.2 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Big Hit, Mars Attacks!, Wild Bill — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.2
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.1
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 Big Hit, Mars Attacks!, Wild Bill.
Most productive era
2010s
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.01 film | 5.61 film | 6.11 film |
| Action | 6.02 films | 5.71 film | 5.21 film |
| Thriller | 6.01 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 5.89 films | 6.010 films |
| Crime | 6.01 film | — | — |
| Romance | — | 5.63 films | 5.92 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1995Wild Bill
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Lurline Newcomb.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2014The Book of Life
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
The current state of the argument, as Gwendolyn James.
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.
23 of 23 films
as Mary Beth (voice)
Directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez
as Debbie Griswold
Directed by John Francis Daley
as Sharona
Directed by Tim Burton
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
Mary Beth (voice)
The Book of Life (2014)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mary Beth (voice) gives Christina Applegate a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Veronica Corningstone
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Performance score7.1
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Veronica Corningstone is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Debbie Griswold
Vacation (2015)
Performance score6.8
Vacation asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Debbie Griswold is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gwendolyn James
Bad Moms (2016)
Performance score6.7
Bad Moms asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gwendolyn James 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 Mary Beth (voice)
Start here. The Book of Life is the clearest statement of what Christina Applegate does — accessible, 95 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Christina 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.
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Keeps the fantasy register of The Book of Life but asks for a colder reading of it.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Keeps the comedy register of Mars Attacks! but asks for a colder reading of it.
Vacation (2015)
Keeps the comedy register of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy but asks for a colder reading of it.
Bad Moms (2016)
Keeps the comedy register of Vacation but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Adam McKay
Director
3 films together
Notably Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Mike Mitchell
Director
2 films together
Notably Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Jon Lucas
Director
2 films together
Notably Bad Moms
Walter Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably Wild Bill
Tim Burton
Director
1 film together
Notably Mars Attacks!
Jean-Marie Poiré
Director
1 film together
Notably Just Visiting
Roger Kumble
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sweetest Thing
Mitch Rouse
Director
1 film together
Notably Employee of the Month
Betty Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Nanette Burstein
Director
1 film together
Notably Going the Distance
Brad Peyton
Director
1 film together
Notably Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Hall Pass
Jorge R. Gutierrez
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Life
John Francis Daley
Director
1 film together
Notably Vacation
Kevin Tent
Director
1 film together
Notably Crash Pad
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Adam McKay
Director
3 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron BurgundyJon Lucas
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
Bad MomsMike Mitchell
Director
2 films together · 5.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Alvin and the Chipmunks: ChipwreckedJorge R. Gutierrez
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Book of LifeTim Burton
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mars Attacks!John Francis Daley
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VacationNanette Burstein
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Going the DistanceWalter Hill
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wild BillBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hall PassBetty Thomas
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The SqueakquelMitch Rouse
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Employee of the MonthKevin Tent
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Crash PadRoger Kumble
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 Sweetest ThingBrad Peyton
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty GaloreJean-Marie Poiré
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Just VisitingSix 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
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (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
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (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
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Mars Attacks!
as Sharona
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (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. Christina Applegate 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
22 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
21 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
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Big Hit
as Pam Shulman
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Book of Life
as Mary Beth (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Wild Bill
as Lurline Newcomb
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
as Brittany (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Wild Bill
as Lurline Newcomb
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Reference
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