Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4088
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Joseph Oliveira represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 51 years in, and Joseph is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Joseph Oliveira appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Joseph. Interstellar is the clearest case: a film rated 8.8 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, romance, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Dennis Dugan, Max Winkler, Takashi Doscher and others, Joseph Oliveira 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.
Interstellar (2014) as Astronaut (uncredited) · Whiplash (2014) as Bartender (uncredited) · The Imitation Game (2014) as MI6 Agent (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #4088 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1975–2026
Career length
51 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.8
Interstellar
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Interstellar
Most frequent director
Dennis Dugan
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Dennis Dugan
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
7.0
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
1970s
7.3 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. The Boys from Brazil, Jaws — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
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
1970s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Boys from Brazil, Jaws.
Most productive era
2010s
8 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 | 1970s | 1980s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.61 film | — | 7.61 film | 7.45 films | 5.82 films |
| Action | — | — | — | 5.83 films | 5.21 film |
| Thriller | 7.91 film | 6.71 film | 7.61 film | 6.56 films | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 5.71 film | 6.41 film | 3.02 films |
| Crime | — | — | 7.61 film | 5.42 films | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | — | 5.62 films |
| Horror | 7.91 film | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1975Jaws
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Swimmer (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2014Interstellar
8.8 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 Roaring Game
The current state of the argument, as Super Fan.
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.
17 of 17 films
as Astronaut (uncredited)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Bartender (uncredited)
Directed by Damien Chazelle
as MI6 Agent (uncredited)
Directed by Morten Tyldum
as Swimmer (uncredited)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
Directed by Mary Harron
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
Astronaut (uncredited)
Interstellar (2014)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Astronaut (uncredited) gives Joseph Oliveira a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Bartender (uncredited)
Whiplash (2014)
Performance score8.3
Whiplash asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bartender (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
MI6 Agent (uncredited)
The Imitation Game (2014)
Performance score7.9
The Imitation Game asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. MI6 Agent (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Swimmer (uncredited)
Jaws (1975)
Performance score7.7
Jaws asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Swimmer (uncredited) 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 Astronaut (uncredited)
Start here. Interstellar is the clearest statement of what Joseph Oliveira does — accessible, 169 minutes, and rated 8.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Joseph 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.
Jaws (1975)
Keeps the adventure register of Interstellar but asks for a colder reading of it.
American Psycho (2000)
Keeps the thriller register of Jaws but asks for a colder reading of it.
Whiplash (2014)
Keeps the drama register of American Psycho but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Imitation Game (2014)
Keeps the drama register of Whiplash but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Jaws
Franklin J. Schaffner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boys from Brazil
Walter Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably Southern Comfort
Mary Harron
Director
1 film together
Notably American Psycho
Mark Steven Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Killing Season
Morten Tyldum
Director
1 film together
Notably The Imitation Game
Damien Chazelle
Director
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Christopher Nolan
Director
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Sacha Gervasi
Director
1 film together
Notably November Criminals
Ben Lewin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Catcher Was a Spy
Babak Najafi
Director
1 film together
Notably Proud Mary
Takashi Doscher
Director
1 film together
Notably Only
Max Winkler
Director
1 film together
Notably Jungleland
Dennis Dugan
Director
1 film together
Notably Love, Weddings & Other Disasters
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
1 film together · 8.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
InterstellarDamien Chazelle
Director
1 film together · 8.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WhiplashMorten Tyldum
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Imitation GameSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JawsMary Harron
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American PsychoWalter Hill
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Southern ComfortFranklin J. Schaffner
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 Boys from BrazilMax Winkler
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JunglelandBen Lewin
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Catcher Was a SpyDennis Dugan
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love, Weddings & Other DisastersBabak Najafi
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Proud MaryMark Steven Johnson
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Killing SeasonSacha Gervasi
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
November CriminalsTakashi Doscher
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OnlySix 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
Whiplash
as Bartender (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Whiplash
as Bartender (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Interstellar
as Astronaut (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Love, Weddings & Other Disasters
as Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Interstellar
as Astronaut (uncredited)
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. Joseph Oliveira 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
51 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
9 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
Interstellar
as Astronaut (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Jaws
as Swimmer (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Whiplash
as Bartender (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
November Criminals
as Officer (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Interstellar
as Astronaut (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Proud Mary
as Gangster Tanev
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Whiplash
as Bartender (uncredited)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Interstellar
as Astronaut (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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 Joseph Oliveira performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
