Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1161
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Eric Bana represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 25 years in, and Eric is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Eric Bana appears in 25 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Eric. Finding Nemo is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 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, thriller, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Baltasar Kormákur, Adam Elliot, Akiva Schaffer and others, Eric Bana 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.
Finding Nemo (2003) as Anchor (voice) · Mary and Max (2009) as Damien (voice) · Memoir of a Snail (2024) as James the Magistrate (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1161 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
25
2001–2026
Career length
25 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Finding Nemo
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Memoir of a Snail
Most frequent director
Adam Elliot
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Adam Elliot
Most common genre
Drama
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 56m
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
6.7
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
6.9 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Mary and Max, Star Trek, The Time Traveler's Wife — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.9
Across 11 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.9
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. Mary and Max, Star Trek, The Time Traveler's Wife.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.76 films | 6.84 films | 7.12 films |
| Action | 7.04 films | 6.93 films | 7.01 film |
| Thriller | 7.11 film | 6.33 films | 6.44 films |
| Comedy | 6.82 films | — | 7.43 films |
| Crime | — | 6.22 films | 6.81 film |
| Romance | 6.53 films | 7.21 film | — |
| Horror | — | 6.31 film | 5.61 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2001Black Hawk Down
Where our catalogue meets this career, as SFC Norm 'Hoot' Gibson.
Highest rated performance
2003Finding Nemo
8.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Apex
The current state of the argument, as Tommy.
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.
25 of 25 films
as Chaz (voice)
Directed by Harry Cripps
as Anchor (voice)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
as SFC Norm 'Hoot' Gibson
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Damien (voice)
Directed by Adam Elliot
as Captain Nero
Directed by J.J. Abrams
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
Chaz (voice)
Back to the Outback (2021)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Chaz (voice) gives Eric Bana a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Anchor (voice)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Performance score7.8
Finding Nemo asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Anchor (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
SFC Norm 'Hoot' Gibson
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Performance score7.8
Black Hawk Down asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. SFC Norm 'Hoot' Gibson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Damien (voice)
Mary and Max (2009)
Performance score7.7
Mary and Max asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Damien (voice) 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 Chaz (voice)
Start here. Back to the Outback is the clearest statement of what Eric Bana does — accessible, 92 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Eric 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.
Black Hawk Down (2001)
A deliberate change of key after Back to the Outback — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Finding Nemo (2003)
A deliberate change of key after Black Hawk Down — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Mary and Max (2009)
Keeps the animation register of Finding Nemo but asks for a colder reading of it.
Star Trek (2009)
A deliberate change of key after Mary and Max — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Adam Elliot
Director
2 films together
Notably Mary and Max
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Black Hawk Down
Ang Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Hulk
Andrew Stanton
Director
1 film together
Notably Finding Nemo
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably Troy
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Munich
Curtis Hanson
Director
1 film together
Notably Lucky You
Justin Chadwick
Director
1 film together
Notably The Other Boleyn Girl
Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together
Notably Funny People
Robert Schwentke
Director
1 film together
Notably The Time Traveler's Wife
J.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Trek
Joe Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably Hanna
Peter Berg
Director
1 film together
Notably Lone Survivor
Scott Derrickson
Director
1 film together
Notably Deliver Us from Evil
Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together
Notably King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Jim Sheridan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Secret Scripture
Harry Cripps
Director
1 film together
Notably Back to the Outback
Akiva Schaffer
Director
1 film together
Notably Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Baltasar Kormákur
Director
1 film together
Notably Apex
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Adam Elliot
Director
2 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Mary and MaxAndrew Stanton
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Finding NemoHarry Cripps
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Back to the OutbackJ.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star TrekRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Black Hawk DownPeter Berg
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lone SurvivorWolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TroyJim Sheridan
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Secret ScriptureSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MunichBaltasar 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
ApexAkiva Schaffer
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue RangersRobert Schwentke
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 Time Traveler's WifeJustin Chadwick
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 Other Boleyn GirlGuy Ritchie
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
King Arthur: Legend of the SwordJoe Wright
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HannaScott Derrickson
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deliver Us from EvilJudd Apatow
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Funny PeopleCurtis Hanson
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lucky YouAng Lee
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HulkSix 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
Finding Nemo
as Anchor (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 Secret Scripture
as Dr. William Grene
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Finding Nemo
as Anchor (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Finding Nemo
as Anchor (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Back to the Outback
as Chaz (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. Eric Bana 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
25 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
12 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
Finding Nemo
as Anchor (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Apex
as Tommy
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Secret Scripture
as Dr. William Grene
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Dry
as Aaron Falk
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Star Trek
as Captain Nero
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Hanna
as Erik
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Memoir of a Snail
as James the Magistrate (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Finding Nemo
as Anchor (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Bonnie Hunt
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Tim Allen
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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